For years Fortis was one of the crown jewels of Belgium’s banking world. But by late September 2008 its success story came to a dramatic end and the Belgian government had to intervene to keep the bank from going under. How did it come to this?

For many outsiders the decline was due to Fortis’s ambitious take-over of the Dutch ABN-Amro bank. The general belief was that the Fortis management had lost all sense of reality and had actually overestimated the capacity of its own bank. Others believed the amount of sub-prime loans was the fatal trigger.

The Fortis management kept quiet. Up until now. Here they speak out for the first time. With shocking interviews with the former CEO of Fortis, Herman Verwilst, the former CFO, Gilbert Mittler, as well as the current head of the Fortis Holding, Karel De Boeck. Most revealing of all perhaps are the words of Valere Cross, the former head of Fortis, who is generally credited as the man responsible for the spectacular growth of the Fortis group before its spectacular fall. Could things have turned out differently?

We went abroad to see how other major banking companies warded off the devastating effects of the American sub-prime debacle. We talked to foreign bank managers and financial experts. Their story makes the Fortis one even more unbelievable.