ING, the Dutch banking and insurance group, reported its third consecutive quarterly loss on Wednesday, hit by unexpected insurance losses and rising loan loss provisions in banking.The ?793m quarterly net loss, compared with a ?1.54bn profit a year ago, narrowed from the ?3.7bn loss in the fourth quarter but missed analyst expectations. Shares in the group fell 6.4 per cent to ?7.30 in early trading.
The group has twice turned to the Dutch government for support, most recently in January when it secured state guarantees on a portfolio of US mortgage-backed securities, resulting in much lower impairments and losses in its banking business in the first quarter compared to the last three months of 2008.
However, loan loss provisions rose to ?772m, up from ?98m a year earlier and ?576m in the preceding quarter.
?You can see the crisis turning from the financial to the real economy,? Koos Timmermans, chief risk officer, told an analysts?? conference call. The loan loss provisions were mainly accounted for by structured finance and US mortgages but also included ?85m for Dutch business lending.
ING??s insurance unit reported a ?979m pre-tax loss, hit by market turmoil that forced ING to record lower values for a range of assets in equity, debt, real estate and private equity.
