[3]: III  Meanwhile, the bank's activities expanded rapidly in the postwar period, both in Belgium and abroad with new subsidiaries in Tangier, Beirut, Geneva, and New York.

On that occasion, the bank's name was changed to Société Générale de Banque (Dutch: Generale Bankmaatschappij); the SGB's stake was further diluted to 20.7 percent.

With ongoing European integration, the combination promised greater strength with a balance sheet total of 250 billion guilders that would have made it the fourth-largest bank in Europe.

On 12 February 1988, Générale de Banque and AMRO Bank signed a cooperation agreement aiming at a merger within three years.

But as Villegas de Clercamp left the bank, the alliance project lost an important champion, and his successor Paul-Emmanuel Janssen was more reluctant.

In the summer of 1989, after a year and a half of talks, AMRO Bank lost confidence in a good outcome, and in September 1989 a press conference ended the alliance.

Fortis's Maurice Lippens had good relations with Suez's top executive, Gérard Mestrallet, and quickly reached an agreement.

In May 1998, after months of difficult negotiations and with the reluctance of the bank's executive committee, Fortis made an offer of 22 billion guilders in shares.

[10] The Générale de Bank complex was in turn demolished in 2016-2017 to make way for a new head office building of BNP Paribas Fortis, designed by Jaspers-Eyers Architects and completed in late 2021.