It’s almost habit-forming. Every few years, the governments of Belgium, France and Luxembourg gather around a table to thrash out how to save a crippled regional financial services group. Fortis, Dexia and, following last month’s collapse, Dexia again. Initially, they made good progress, agreeing the sale of its Luxembourg private bank, its Belgian retail bank and its municipal lending arm. HSBC could buy its Turkish retail bank. Now the three-way charade appears to be boiling down to a dispute over government debt guarantees.
这几乎已形成一种习惯。每隔几年，比利时，法国和卢森堡三国政府就会聚集在桌边，开会研讨该如何拯救一个陷入困境的区域性金融服务集团。先是富通(Fortis)，接下来是德克夏(Dexia)，继上个月的突发危机后，又再次轮到德克夏。最初，他们进展良好，同意出售该银行在卢森堡的私人银行业务、在比利时的零售银行业务以及市政贷款业务。汇丰银行(HSBC)则可以收购其位于土耳其的零售银行。但这个三方参与的游戏，似乎正纠结于一场有关政府债务担保的纠纷。