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The Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments will inject a €11.2bn lifeline in Fortis to buy 49 percent of its banking subsidiaries in the three countries. The bank is also expected to sell its stake in ABN Amro, the Dutch financial company it partly acquired last year as part of a break-up deal led by a Royal Bank of Scotland consortium.



BNP Paribas and ING had shown interest in buying all or part of Fortis. But negotiations failed as the governments would not agree to guarantees against possible future losses.



Fortis is Belgium's largest private sector employer.



In the United Kingdom, Bradford & Bingley's loan book is set to be nationalised as no buyer was found to take over the whole bank. No institution was ready to buy its £40bn mortgage loan book, made up of risky assets. This could exposer taxpayers to losses. Last week, the bank announced 370 job cuts and further write-downs linked to toxic mortgage assets.



Santander of Spain will, however, take over the bank's 200 branches as well as its deposit book.



In a meeting of European trade unions, held under the umbrella of UNI-Europa Finance, calls were made for tougher regulations and greater transparency - and curbs on aggressive sales targets imposed on staff, often as part of payment systems. There has to be a price tag on the huge amounts of taxpayers money being invested in salvaging the world’s financial markets to force tough changes on the industry, said UNI Finance.



In the United States, after days of negotiations, an agreement was reached on a $700bn bailout plan of the financial services industry. The agreement, which still has to be accepted by both houses of parliament, could force financial institutions that beneft from the deal to reimburse the government for any losses it would incur and sets up curbs on executives compensation at companies participating in the rescue plan. The deal also opens the door for the govenrment to take equity stakes in the companies it bails out.



UNI Finance welcomes the steps taken by US legislators, in particular the limits imposed on excessive executive pay. However, UNI Finance also calls for tougher financial regulations as well as real economic relief for America's workers and their families.





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