Dexia N.V./S.A., or the Dexia Group, is a Franco-Belgian financial institution formed in 1996. At its peak in 2010, it had about 35,200 members of staff and a core shareholders' equity of €19.2 billion. In 2008, the bank entered severe financial difficulties and received taxpayer bailouts for €6 billion, and it became the first big casualty of the 2011 European sovereign debt crisis. Due to big losses, suffered among others from the debt haircut on Greek government bonds, and an orderly resolution process began in October 2011. As part of the resolution, Dexia Bank Belgium was bought out from the Dexia group by the Belgian state and has continued to operate, since March 2012 under the new name Belfius. The French bank focused on local government lending was restructured as . The remaining part of the Dexia group was left in a "bad bank", still called Dexia, to be gradually wound down. Profile In the 2010 Fortune Global 500 (which lists companies by total income) Dexia was ranked 49th, the top-ranked Belgian company. The company was founded in 1996 through the merger of Gemeentekrediet van België/Crédit Communal de Belgique (founded in 1860) and Crédit Local de France (founded in 1987). The Dexia Group was founded as a dual-listed company, but in 1999 the Belgian entity took over the French entity to form one company. The company is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. France and Belgium just injected another combined €5.5 billion ($7 billion) into Dexia. History Belgium: Gemeentekrediet van België / Crédit Communal de Belgique 1860 – Foundation of the Gemeentekrediet van België / Crédit Communal de Belgique, specifically aimed at financing the investments of the local administrations. The communities were shareholders, for a value of at least 5% of the amounts drawn. 1947 – Development of a network of retail branches that allow drawing funds from the general public through savings accounts. From 1960 on the branches were run by independent agents, allowing a broader range of services and products to be offered and a lasting relationship with clients to be developed. 1990 – Start of the international expansion of the bank with the creation of the Cregem International Bank in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, specialising in the management of large sums of money. 1991 – The Gemeentekrediet builds on its international expansion by taking a stake of 25% in the Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL), the biggest bank