Belgium to Buy Dexia's Local Consumer-Lending Unit

Belgium does not exclude buying up 100 percent of Dexia's Belgian arm, a minister said Sunday as France and Brussels raced to wrap up talks on dismantling the troubled cross-border bank."The state is going to substantially raise its stake," Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said in an interview with RTBF television. "If we were at 100 percent, which I do not exclude, it is not our intention to stay forever. (But) That doesn't mean that we will stay for three or six months."

The board of directors of troubled Dexia will meet on Sunday in Brussels, officials said as France and Brussels intensified talks on a deal to dismantle the cross-border bank.The board will meet at 1500 (1300 GMT), said a spokesman for the bank.Ahead of the meeting, French and Belgian prime ministers, Francois Fillon and Yves Leterme, will hold a lunch-time meeting in Brussels to finalise a deal to dismantle the bank.Dexia, which had to be rescued in 2008 in the global financial crisis, is the first European bank to be dragged down by the eurozone debt crisis.

The board of directors of troubled Dexia will meet on Sunday in Brussels, officials said as France and Brussels intensified talks on a deal to dismantle the cross-border bank.The board will meet at 1500 (1300 GMT), said a spokesman for the bank.Ahead of the meeting, French and Belgian prime ministers, Francois Fillon and Yves Leterme, will hold a lunch-time meeting in Brussels to finalise a deal to dismantle the bank.Dexia, which had to be rescued in 2008 in the global financial crisis, is the first European bank to be dragged down by the eurozone debt crisis.

Belgium will take total control of the local arm of the troubled Franco-Belgian bank Dexia, Prime Minister Yves Leterme said Monday after a cabinet meeting in Brussels.Leterme said the move would "make secure" the retail bank inside Belgium and free it from "any risks resulting from the environment within parent body Dexia SA".Finance Minister Didier Reynders said his government had offered four billion euros for Dexia Bank Belgium, an amount he said was "reasonable".

France and Belgium intensified talks Saturday to reach a deal within 48 hours on dismantling troubled cross-border bank Dexia, with disagreements on splitting the costs.The two countries are under pressure to reach an accord ahead of a meeting on Sunday of the bank's board of directors.The Belgian and French prime ministers, Yves Leterme and Francois Fillon, held telephone talks on Saturday morning, said a source, followed by afternoon discussions between finance ministers Didier Reynders and Francois Baroin.

On January 7, long before Italy was in the spotlight of mainstream media, I wrote Italy The Invisible Elephant.It was five or six months before Italy became an uncloaked popular economic topic.However, "elephant hunting" is now a popular sport and mainstream media has done a better job at spotting the next one (with help of S&P threats to France's AAA rating of course).

France and Belgium stepped in Tuesday to guarantee the financing of the troubled cross-border bank Dexia, as its shares plunged spectacularly on reports that it was to be broken up.The governments, shareholders in a bank that specialises in investing local government funds, acted as Dexia faced the threat of becoming the first major European institution to fall since the sovereign debt crisis began.