BRUSSELS, Amsterdam - June 28, 2008 - Fortis Bank expects a complete collapse of the U.S. financial markets within a few days to weeks.
According to Fortis, that explains the series of interventions of last Thursday to retrieve 8 billion euros. “We have been saved just in time. The situation in the United States is much worse than we thought”, said Fortis chairman Maurice Lippens.
Fortis expects bankruptcies among 6000 American banks that currently have a small coverage, but he also includes Citigroup and General Motors in his dire prediction of a “complete financial meltdown”.