As part of the terms of the
Treaty of Paris in 1814, the countries of Europe agreed to augment their armed forces from
militias to standing armies. Although Belgium had been offered independence by the Prussians, Britain's
Lord Castlereagh vetoed it on the grounds that the country was too small to be economically viable, and the question then arose of who should govern it, the Austrians having washed their hands of it as a historical accident of the breakup of the
Habsburg Empire. Although
William I of the Netherlands refused initially on the grounds of the added expense involved in maintaining his own army, Castlereagh persuaded him by asking him if he preferred to be Prince of Orange or King of the Netherlands, adding that from a practical point of view the Belgian Ducal Estates amounted to a third of the country. William subsequently founded the in 1822 in part to administer these large estates, while proclaiming the goal of increasing the welfare of the country. Upon contributing 28,108 hectares of forst land, the king was the single largest shareholder of the at its founding, the rest being subscribed by public and charitable institutions, other companies, and individuals. During its early years it had a dual activity, as managers of its vast forest lands and as a bank, supplementing
De Nederlandsche Bank (est. 1814) which was active in the northern part of the kingdom. Its first banknotes were issued on . It also acted as
fiscal agent of the royal government, for which it developed a network of branches throughout the Southern Netherlands (including
Luxembourg and
Diekirch). Its branch in
Antwerp, established in 1823, was converted in 1827 into a fully-fledged subsidiary, the
Banque d'Anvers. Because the bank's operations were dominated by the profit-making interests of its private shareholders, it fell short of the aims the king had set for it in terms of fostering economic development. After the
Belgian Revolution of 1830, the company took the French name . It sold off its land holdings at low prices to the immediate circle of the Board. By 1914, the Société Générale was by far the largest bank in Belgium, operating in conjunction with 18 affiliated banks in the country which it practically controlled. Under the harsh
German occupation of Belgium during World War I, as the National Bank of Belgium had moved its operations and reserves to
London, the Société Générale became formally the
central bank for the country by creating a monetary issue department within itself. It remained secretly in contact with the National Bank in exile, however, and effectively acted on behalf of the latter; so that when Belgium recovered its sovereignty, the National Bank took over all liabilities and assets of the Société Générale's issue department, which was subsequently closed. In 1928, the Société Générale absorbed the
Banque d'Outremer and thus became a major participant in the economy of the
Belgian Congo. Throughout the 1920s, its affiliated banks took over many formerly independent local banks throughout Belgium. By end-1930, it represented 32.9 percent of the aggregate liabilities and 31.0 percent of the aggregate capital of the entire Belgian banking system, and was a similarly dominant investor in large mining, infrastructure, and industrial companies. In the 1930s, the Société Générale in turn absorbed all its local Belgian banking affiliates with the only exception of the
Banque d'Anvers, then spun off the
Générale de Banque as mandated by new Belgian legislation in 1935 while keeping controlling ownership of it. By end-1939, the Société Générale's share of the Belgian banking sector's total assets had further risen to 32.6 percent. By the mid-1960,
Time reported that the SGB still had control of "a fourth of Belgium's industry and half of the Congo's". In 1988, Suez secured control of the SGB following a hostile takeover contest with
Carlo de Benedetti. The SGB was also from the start the largest shareholder of Fortis AG, the Belgian entity of the
Fortis Group, with a 20 percent stake as of end-1991. In June 1998, Suez acquired 100 percent of the SGB's equity as part of its effort to secure majority control of
Tractebel, while Fortis Group acquired the
Générale de Banque, thus completing the separation of the bank from its parent entity initiated in 1934. By August 1998, Tractebel and Fortis together represented over 90 percent of the value of the SGB's holdings, the rest being mainly a controlling stake in
Union Minière and minority stakes in
SAGEM and
ARBED. The SGB itself was fully integrated into the Suez group in subsequent years and its legal existence ended in 2003, in parallel with divestment of the group's stake in Fortis. ==Head Office==