Belgian-Dutch banking giant Fortis, which was rescued with partial nationalisation and an injection of €11.2 billion by the Benelux governments, has now become the target for an investigation by the Dutch finance ministry into the reasons for it collapsing.

As the near collapse of Fortis sent shockwaves through the Belgian-Dutch financial industry, Dutch finance minister, Wouter Bos told the parliament on Tuesday that a full scale investigation will be launched as certain information has ''come to light'' regarding to the take over of ABN AMRO a year ago by Fortis.

The ministry will try to find out whether Fortis had disclosed the risk involved which were not reflecting in the balance sheet when it applied for authorization from the ministry to acquire ABN AMRO.

He also added that, had his ministry the information which it now possesses, it would not have given the 'no objection' to the acquisition of ABN AMRO.

He told the parliament that "The financial strength of Fortis was not as we expected and there was an insufficient view on all the risks."

Bos said that he was not implying of any swindling by Fortis.

Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme called on Fortis to stop the payment of €5 million to outgoing CEO Herman Verwilst since the executive had a "not very glorious record.''

Leterme told RTBF television, ''As far as I am concerned, there won't be a payment of €4-5 million to Verwilst."

Fortis has also stopped the €2.15 billion deal to sell half its asset management arm to Ping An Insurance, who has a five per cent stake in the bank, saying "severe market disruption and the ongoing uncertainty in the global capital markets."

The Dutch central bank also withheld the approval for the group's sale of €709 million worth of ABN AMRO assets to Deutsche Bank pending further review.

Fortis said in a statement that the central bank made the decision because of "exceptional circumstances on international financial markets, the uncertainty with regard to the future shareholder in ABN AMRO and the implications of this uncertainty for all parties involved."

Newly appointed chief executive Filip Dierckx acknowledged that Fortis had made strategic mistakes in the acquisition of ABN AMRO, saying that the timing of the acquisition was bad.

Fortis had paid €24 billion euros for its part in a consortium buy-out for ABN AMRO when the market was at its peak, but today it would fetch only €10 billion.