Jean-Paul Votron has resigned as chief executive of Fortis, the bancassurer has confirmed. His exit comes just weeks after the bancassurer infuriated investors by raising €8.3 billion (£6.5 billion) to prop up a balance sheet stretched by last year's acquisition of ABN Amro.

Mr Votron steps down with immediate effect after four years “by mutual agreement in the interest of the group.”. The bank said following a board meeting in Brussels that Herman Verwilst, currently Mr Votron’s deputy, would replace him while a successor is recruited.

The announcement was delayed until after markets closed, but shares fell 4.2 per cent Friday to €9.45 on the Euronext exchange. The board meeting was called hastily in response to shareholder anger at a plan announced last month to boost reserves by €8 billion.

For many investors, last month’s solvency package -including a capital increase and scrapping of the interim dividend - was the final straw. The measures pushed Fortis shares down 19 per cent on the day they were announced. They are now worth about a third of their value when Fortis launched its joint bid for Dutch bank ABN AMRO last year

Fortis paid about €24 billion for a share of ABN Amro's operations as part of last year's €71 billion break-up bid by a Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium. The bancassurer financed its part of the deal with a €13.4 billion rights issue and a series of disposals. The consortium has since been criticised for overpaying just before the global banking industry was hit by an unprecedented liquidity squeeze.

This month Fortis sold ABN's Dutch commercial banking operations to Deutsche Bank for €709 million, €300 million less than the business's net asset value. The disposal was part of an agreement with European regulators under competition law. On Wednesday Fortis sold its London hedge fund business, International Asset Management, to a management team backed by Sir Ronald Cohen, the co-founder of Apax Partners, for an undisclosed sum.

Delor, the Belgian consumer claims group, said this week that it would take legal action against Fortis on behalf of investors who had lost money after believing the company's previous assurances. Test Aankoop, a consumer group, and Deminor, the investor group, demanded last week that Fortis hold an extraordinary meeting.

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