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Global business Lifelines were thrown to European banks. The Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg governments partly nationalized Fortis amid uncertainty about its ability to sell assets it holds in ABN AMRO, a Dutch bank. Dexia, a Belgian-French bank, received a $9.2 billion government cash injection. In Britain, Bradford & Bingley, a specialist in buy-to-let mortgages, was nationalized and some assets sold to Spain's Santander. Hypo Real Estate, Germany's second-largest property lender, obtained $51 billion in credit guarantees from the government and the banking industry. And Glitnir, Iceland's third-largest bank, was nationalized. Ireland's government took the extraordinary step of guaranteeing all deposits in six Irish banks after their share prices suffered huge losses. The guarantee covers around $575 billion of liabilities,... [read full story]
