The action of the National Bank (BNB) on the Brussels Stock Exchange was suspended on Wednesday morning before the opening of trade, indicated, shortly before 9:00 a.m., the FSMA, the financial market authority. It will remain so at least until the publication of a press release.
Solicited, the BNB refuses to comment before this press release has been published. This will be the case”in the next few hours“, it says.
The suspension of the action of the BNB is extremely rare. According to some observers, this could herald a takeover bid for the Bank, of which the State holds 200,000 shares, or 50%, the balance being distributed among investors. As L’Echo reminds us on its website on Wednesday, Belgium is one of the only countries in the world whose central bank is listed on the stock exchange.
Others refer to an important earnings warning. BNB shares recently traded around 1,500 euros, their lowest price in over 20 years. In better times, it had reached up to 4000 euros. Over a period of three years, it has decreased by more than a third, underlines De Standaard on Wednesday morning.
This fall in the share price is linked to the reversal of the interest rate market.
Concrete figures are already circulating in the Netherlands on the impact of the inversion of interest rates on the Dutch central bank. According to Het Financieele Dagblad and the NRC, the latter has warned the Dutch government that the rapid rise in interest rates will put it in the red and prevent it from paying dividends to the state.