Brussels/Paris - The bosses of Dexia stepped down on Tuesday after the struggling Franco-Belgian bank became the latest victim of the global credit crunch and was bailed out by three European governments.

Belgian media reports said Axel Miller, a Belgian who acts as its chief executive officer, and Pierre Richard, a Frenchman who chairs the board of directors, both tendered their resignation in the wake of the 6.4-billion-euro (9.2-billion-dollar) capital injection.

The company issued a statement confirming that the governments of Belgium, France and Luxembourg had agreed to support the bank.

"All the necessary measures will be taken to preserve the interests of Dexia's depositors," Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme said.

Trading in Dexia was suspended on the Paris and Brussels stock exchanges Tuesday after its shares plummeted by nearly 30 per cent on Monday to 7.20 euros, its lowest-ever level.

The Dexia bail-out comes just hours after the governments of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg agreed to partly nationalize Fortis by supplying the Dutch-Belgian banking giant with a total of 11.2 billion euros.

Dexia was created in 1996 from the alliance of Credit Communal de Belgique and Credit Local de France - one of the first cross-border mergers in the European banking sector.

Its retail bank has 5.5 million customers in Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Turkey. (dpa)