Latest update: 03/10/2008 

- banking - Belgium - financial crisis


Government orders ex-Dexia CEO to renounce golden parachute
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde asked Axel Miller, the former CEO of troubled Dexia bank, to give up his €3.7 billion severance package as a condition to the government bailout of the Franco-Belgian financial institution.

The chief executive of troubled Franco-Belgian bank Dexia, who resigned after a government bail out, said Friday he will not be walking away from his post with a golden parachute payoff.
   
"Following my decision to relinquish my mandate as administrator, I have also decided that I will not be asking for severance payment," Axel Miller said in a statement.
   
Miller was to have received 3.7 million euros (5.1 million dollars), according to bank documents.
   
The departure of Dexia executives was a condition set by the French government for shoring up the Franco-Belgian banking group, which lends heavily to French municipalities.
   
Paris also insisted that Miller be stripped of any right to severance pay.
   
Earlier this week, the French, Belgian and Luxembourg governments threw a 6.4-billion-euro (nine-billion-dollar) lifeline to Dexia which was caught in the financial storm caused by the US banking crisis.
   
The French government this week started preparing legislation to be presented in the coming weeks restricting executive payoffs after several banks became vulnerable, due in part to poor investment decisions.
   
Dexia's troubles came amid the biggest financial upheaval since the Great Depression, forcing the US government to draw up a 700 billion dollar rescue package to contain fallout from the crisis.

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