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Dexia is Northern Rock

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Dexia Is Northern Rock

THERE’S a Belgian/French bank out there called Dexia. No, I’d not heard of it until a couple of days ago either. The reason I have heard of it, the reason it’s in the papers, is because it seems to be going bust.

At times during Tuesday’s trading session in Brussels, Dexia shares changed hands for less than €1 and at the close were quoted at €1.008, marking a 22.5pc fall for the day and close to a 60pc drop since the beginning of the year.

The collapse in Dexia’s market value, which currently stands at €1.96bn (£1.68bn), came as François Baroin, France’s finance minister, and Didier Reynders, Belgium’s finance minister, issued a statement saying they would “take all necessary measures for the security of depositors and creditors” and would “guarantee financing raised by Dexia”.

There’s two problems here, the second making the first much worse. The first is that they’ve blown most of the money, the capital of the bank that is, on buying Greek etc government bonds which are now worth 50%, 30%, of what they first paid for them. So the bank is teetering around being bust, having exhausted or nearly so all of its capital reserves.

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Posted: 5th, October 2011 | In: Money | Comment