Fortis Group
Fortis, formally Fortis N.V./S.A., was a Benelux-centered global financial services group active in insurance, banking and investment management, initially formed in 1990 by a three-way Belgian-Dutch merger and headquartered in Brussels. It grew rapidly through multiple acquisitions, and in 2007 was the 20th largest financial services business in the world by revenue. It was listed on the Euronext Brussels, Euronext Amsterdam, and Luxembourg stock exchanges.
Set of buildings on Rue Royale in Brussels, the headquarters of Fortis during the 2000s and previously seat of the Société Générale de Belgique | |
| Company type | Naamloze vennootschap / Société anonyme |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1990 |
| Defunct | 2010 |
| Fate | Non-insurance activities sold, remaining operations renamed Ageas |
| Successor | BNP Paribas Fortis (Belgian banking); Fortis Bank Nederland (Dutch banking); Ageas (insurance); ASR Nederland (Dutch insurance) |
| Headquarters | Brussels, Belgium; Utrecht, Netherlands |
| Products | Retail, commercial, private and investment banking, insurance, asset management |
Fortis encountered severe problems in the financial crisis of 2008, not least as a consequence of participating in 2007 in the joint acquisition of ABN AMRO together with Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Banco Santander. It received an emergency bailout from the governments of Belgium and the Netherlands and was broken up soon thereafter. As a consequence:
- Fortis Bank Nederland was nationalised by the Dutch government and merged in July 2010 with ABN AMRO's former Dutch operations, which had not yet been integrated with Fortis following the 2007 takeover, to form a new group also called ABN AMRO;
- the other banking operations were acquired in 2008 by BNP Paribas and became part, respectively, of BNP Paribas Fortis (retaining the Fortis brand) in Belgium, BGL BNP Paribas in Luxembourg, BNP Paribas Bank Polska in Poland, and Türk Ekonomi Bankası in Türkiye;
- Fortis's Dutch insurance operations were reorganized as ASR Nederland, the name of a Dutch insurer which Fortis had acquired in 1997;
- the remaining insurance operations, still the largest in Belgium, were rebranded to Ageas in April 2010.
As of 2022, the Fortis brand name is still used by BNP Paribas in Belgium, but its colorful logo was discontinued in 2009 shortly after the acquisition.