European banks see losses, announce job cuts

[Joanne98]

PARIS/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Crisis-hit European banks announced losses and job cuts on Monday, including a shake-up at Dutch financial group ING and a worse-than-expected final quarter from top French bank BNP Paribas.

France's biggest bank by market capitalization expects to post a fourth-quarter net loss of around 1.4 billion euros ($1.8 billion) hit by writedowns and a rise in the cost of risk.

BNP said it now expects a 2008 full-year profit of about 3 billion euros, versus a figure of about 4 billion expected by analysts, according to Reuters Estimates.

"The fourth quarter was marked by exceptionally violent movements in the capital markets, especially in the equity markets," BNP said.

Rival Societe Generale issued a trading update last week saying it expected a fourth quarter profit.

Both BNP and SocGen plan to take part in a second tranche of support of 10.5 billion euros which the French government is due to launch.

Amsterdam-based ING said it faced a 2008 loss of 1 billion euros and would turn to Dutch state loan guarantees for its troubled loan portfolio as part of a sweeping shake-up.

It will cut 7,000 jobs from a total of about 130,000 to save costs this year and announced that Chief Executive Michel Tilmant would be replaced by board chairman Jan Hommen, former chief financial officer at Dutch electronics group Philips.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSLQ15077120090126