Sunday, October 9, 2011
Embattled Dexia bank will get a massive bailout
The Belgian government will buy the bank's division in Belgium for $5.4bn (£3.4bn).
The largely retail operations has 6,000 staff and deposits totalling $107bn for 4m customers.
The plan came after French and German leaders agreed that Europe's crisis-hit banks need to be recapitalised.
Dexia would be left with $121bn in assets, some of which are described as "toxic". They would be covered by state-backed guarantees: 60.5% from Belgium, 36.5% from France and 3% from Luxembourg.
Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme told a news conference in the early hours of Monday: "We found an agreement on the fair division of the costs related to the management of the 'rest bank'."
Dexia asked for help for the second time in three years after a liquidity squeeze sent its shares tumbling.
The situation with Dexia is the latest warning sign over the health of Europe's lenders. It has a global credit risk exposure of around $700bn, twice the gross domestic product of Greece.
Under the plan, Dexia's French municipal finance operations will come under state control. The bank is also expected to announce the planned sale of its healthy businesses, such as Denizbank in Turkey.
The burden of bailing out Dexia led to a warning from the ratings agency Moody's that it could cut its rating on Belgium's government bonds.
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