On Friday September 26, 2008, the management of Fortis Luxembourg warns the Luxembourg finance minister, Luc Frieden, that the bank is on the verge of collapse. The subprime crisis and the acquisition of ABN AMRO precipitated the fall of the group of which it is a part and which has its headquarters in Belgium. For three days, a Luxembourg delegation under the leadership of the State works tirelessly to try to save the Luxembourg entity. No sooner has it sketched out a rescue scenario that it learns about another systemic bank, Dexia-BIL, which is dragged into a similar disaster. The disappearance of the two banks could deal a fatal blow to the country's economy and destabilize the entire financial centre.