Générale de Banque

The Générale de Banque (Dutch: Generale Bank) was a major Belgian bank, created in 1934 as a spin-off from the powerful financial conglomerate Société Générale de Belgique (SGB) in compliance with new Belgian legislation that mandated separation of commercial banking activities from investment holdings. It was initially named the Banque de la Société Générale de Belgique (referred to inside Belgium simply as the Banque de la Société Générale), then from 1965 to 1985 the Société Générale de Banque (Dutch: Generale Bankmaatschappij). Upon establishment, it was the dominant bank in Belgium, with one-third of total banking assets, not counting other SGB-linked banking entities such as the Banque d'Anvers and the Banque Italo-Belge.^: vii

In 1999, the Générale de Banque merged into Fortis Group, which itself became BNP Paribas Fortis following acquisition by BNP Paribas in 2008.