Insurance group Aegon will decide in the next few days if it will ask for financial help from the government’s €20bn fund set up earlier this month to assist companies hit by the credit crisis.

‘We want to prevent speculation and let the market know as quickly as possible if we want to use the fund and if so, under what conditions,’ an Aegon spokesman told the Financieele Dagblad on Monday.
Various foreign newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, reported at the weekend that a decision is imminent.
So far only bank insurer ING has applied for help from the government fund.