The case of SNS Reaal could become a very important test case for future bank rescues.
People with knowledge of the talks say the government is putting pressure on SNS Reaal to limit the cost for taxpayers.
Dutch bancassurer SNS Reaal is in talks to avoid another government bailout that could wipe out shareholder value and squeeze bondholders.
Talk about a debt restructuring has fueled uncertainty among SNS Reaal bondholders.
Ronald Latenstein, SNS Reaal's chief executive, as well as the bank's chief financial officer and chairman of the board of directors, tendered their resignations.
With ABN Amro still in government hands after it was nationalised in 2009, the nationalisation of SNS Reaal means two of the Netherlands' four systemically important banks are state-owned.
Regulators have put SNS Reaal, the Netherlands' fourth-largest bank by assets, in the "too-big-to-fail" category, which means the government is required to come to the rescue should it appear to be on the road to failure.
The nationalisation comes after the European Commission blocked an earlier plan that would have seen the country's other large banks, Rabobank, ING and ABN Amro, contribute capital to a so-called "bad bank" to house SNS Reaal's distressed property assets.
In a blogpost on FT.com on Thursday, economist Heleen Mees noted that rating agency Fitch has warned it may downgrade the debt of other Dutch and European banks if a government rescue of SNS Reaal wipes out ordinary bondholders.
While SNS Reaal has been trying to direct its own trajectory, an attempt to unload its property loans into a so-called bad bank, with other Dutch banks as shareholders, was shot down by the European Commission earlier this month because of competition concerns.
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