Eu Agrees Huge Emergency Aid For Credit Lyonnais

In a speedy move, it gave the go ahead for FFr3.9-billion ($765.6 million) in urgent aid pending new restructuring measures to be submitted by the French government.

European competition commissioner Karel Van Miert told a news conference, however, that the new plan was unlikely to go through without real and substantive divestments.

Credit Lyonnais, once the world's largest bank outside Japan, is already benefitting from a rescue plan worth a maximum FFr45 billion.

The plan was cleared by the European Commission in July last year.

Speaking in an unusually conciliatory tone, Karel Van Miert said that plan had failed to live up to expectations due to the lacklustre French market and the bank's poor image in public opinion.

 

(Credit Lyonnais') rivals said at the time that the Commission had not been tough enough and that it (the 1995 rescue plan) would turn the bank into a