国际英语新闻：Belgium, France, Luxembourg to guarantee Dexia loans

BRUSSELS, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- The governments of Belgium, France and Luxembourg will guarantee all new borrowings and bond financings of the troubled lender Dexia until November next year, the bank said Thursday.

    "The three governments jointly undertook, from today until October 31, 2009, to guarantee new interbank and institutional deposits and financing as well as new bond issuance intended for institutional investors, with a maximum maturity of three years, raised by Dexia SA, Dexia Banque Internationale a Luxembourg, Dexia Bank Belgium and Dexia Credit Local," the Belgian-French bank said in a statement.

    The guarantee, which may be renewed for a term of one year," gives an assurance to depositors that Dexia will have sufficient liquidity to meet its obligations towards its clients," the Dexia Group said.

    The guarantee, which needs to be approved by the parliaments of the three countries, will be "subject to remuneration reflecting the advantage thus obtained by the entities of the Dexia Group concerned," it added.

    Dexia is the world's largest lender to local governments. It is the main source of finance for Belgian and French municipalities.

    The latest move of the three governments followed a massive bailout last week when Belgium, France and Luxembourg led a 6.4 billion-euro (8.8 billion US dollars) capital infusion for Dexia to prevent its collapse.

    Meanwhile, Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme announced on Thursday that the government will also guarantee new borrowings of all other Belgian banks over the coming year.

    The announcements came just before the opening of trading on the Brussels stock exchange. The news sent the Bel-20 blue chip index higher in early trading and Dexia's shares shot up by 24 percent.