There is a financial crisis in the whole world: products become more expensive and the banks don't give any more credits, lots of people lose their jobs, ...
One of the most important banks, Fortis, in our country (Belgium) knows all about the negative consequences. The Belgian government didn't have any money left to help the bank and so they had to sell it. But there came a lot of critic to this fact. There were negotiations with BNP Paribas and they actually bought a part of the bank. But it's more complicated than that... Lots of shareholders don't know anymore what is in Belgian hands and what is controlled by BNP. Perhaps our government had to take more measures to protect the bank and to prevent the bank from being sold. The shareholders aren't happy with the cooperation between BNP and the Belgian government.
There are 4 different parts we can notice. First we have the Fortis Holding, which is the part that's stock market listed. If the shareholders approve all the transactions, this will become an entire insurance group.
The second part is the Fortis Bank. Here we can obviously see that three quarters of this part is sold to BNP Paribas. The Belgian government only has 25% of the bank left in their power, which include a part of "Bank van de Post" and "Fintro". Our government didn't have any money left to keep the bank completely in their own hands. They had to accept help from France. Internationally seen there are influences from Turkey and Pollen.
As third part we have Fortis Insurance Belgium. This segment is for now totally controlled by the Belgian government and is the market leader on the Belgian insurance market.
The last segment, we can describe as Fortis Insurance International. This part is active in 16 countries over the whole world. It's not clear who owns this part of the bank. On the internet there is not much information available about the subject, because it's very delicate to treat.
Nathalie COUDEVILLE
I think it's a shame that because of the financial crisis a lot of banks are in trouble. The whole world was certain of the fact that you can trust your bank but the opposite is proven.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenA lot of people who have invested in banks, the small savers, lost a lot of money because of the financial crisis and because our banks are in financial trouble.
On the other side I think that it is Fortis their own fault that they are in financial trouble, they overrated their company which leads to all the trouble they have.
I also think that Fortis is too much split up in different parts, which makes it more difficult to manage the company.
Ruth Blommaert