Last week Fortis, in a heavily discounted share issue, raised $2.4 billion in what the company acknowledged were "exceptional measures." The Belgium-Dutch financial services firm, accourding to Reuters, found itself in trouble as a result of "fallout from the U.S. subprime crisis and credit crunch."

According to Fortis, however, there is much worse to come. The Telegraph, a Dutch-language paper in Amsterdam, reported on Sunday: "Fortis expects within the next few days to weeks ... complete the collapse of the U.S. financial markets."

Maurice Lippens, chairman of Fortis, emphasized the scale of the devastation he thinks is likely. "We are ready at the last minute. It goes in the United States much worse than thought," Lippens said. 

According to the Telegraph report, "Fortis expects bankruptcies of 6000 U.S. banks that now lack coverage." The report warned that even industry titans like Citigroup and General Motors are vulnerable.

For those who can't read Dutch, the Google translated version of the report is here.

Those who can read Dutch may prefer the untranslated version available here.

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