Fortis: Believe you me

“I’m not upset that you lied to me; I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.” That line from Nietzsche seems all too applicable to banks these days. Fortis is the latest to pull a U-turn, reversing its previous insistence that it wouldn’t need more cash, despite its E24bn splurge on ABN Amro. The Belgo-Dutch bancassurer is now looking to raise E1.5bn of equity capital, likely causing a further 5% dilution, on top of E12bn of shares issued last year in a rights issue to finance the ABN ta...