Fortis posts a huge loss for last year

Agence France-Presse

The bank, taken over by the Dutch government in October, said the results reflected "a loss incurred on the sale of (its) stake in RFS Holdings and a 0.9-billion-euro provision linked to the Madoff fraud."

U.S. financier Bernard Madoff faces up to 150 years in prison for fraud, money laundering, perjury and theft, having duped thousands of victims over the last 20 years in a multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

At the operating level, earnings came to 604 million euros after 1.2 billion in 2007 in retail, commercial and private banking operations.