Are European banks too big to fail?
This interactive map explores the relative size of business and government. Updated to show tier 1 capital ratios for each bank, and household debt levels as percentage of GDP
Fortis’s rescue
Resources
ABN Amro and Fortis set for €4.4bn bail-out
The Dutch state plans to provide the two nationalised banks with further capital to keep their merger on track in what it says will be the groups’ final bail-out
Rising inflows boost Fortis
Belgian insurance group Fortis, broken up as one of Europe’s largest victims of the financial crisis, reports net profit of €196m and says it expects 2009 inflows to at least match last year’s levels
Belgian regulator examining Fortis executives
The Belgian financial regulator has sent letters to 640 senior executives connected to Fortis as part of an investigation into insider trading at the financial group
Dutch pursue twin track for Fortis and ABN
Effort to satisfy European competition regulators that a merger between the two state-owned banks should be allowed to go ahead prior to a re-privatisation
Related content and features
Interactive
Timeline of Fortis’ downfall
View key moments in downfall of Fortis, the largest European financial financial institution to be bailed out as a result of the turmoil in the credit markets
Global banking league
The worst financial crisis since the second world war has not only forced governments across the western world to step in and rescue giant institutions. Amid the turmoil, there has also been a dramatic shift in banking’s centre of gravity
Comment and Analysis
The chastening of Belgian finance
The ambitions of Brussels’s financials have crumbled, but the Fortis bank has been the most spectacular failure and is set to disappear
Third time lucky for BNP in Fortis deal?
Baudouin Prot, BNP chief executive, says the bank would be better positioned to meet the financial crisis after the purchase, but questions remain
BNP Paribas/Fortis
For all the commotion, including the resignation of a Belgian prime minister, little has really changed. Investor attention will soon turn to the main event: BNP’s capital position
Prot succeeds in Belgium as French doors close
Perseverance by the top duo at BNP Paribas has led to their clinching a deal for a majority stake in Belgian bank Fortis, in a relationship likely to prove highly political
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