ING Swings to Third-Quarter Loss

ING Group (ING) swung to a third-quarter underlying loss of 585 million euros ($737.5 million) because of the crisis in the financial markets from year-earlier profit of 1.95 billion euros.

The Dutch financial-services company said the quarterly net loss, its first ever, of 478 million euros was in line with preliminary results it announced in mid-October. ING said it incurred pretax impairments of 1.5 billion euros in the quarter.

"The third quarter was extremely challenging for financial institutions. Financial markets deteriorated rapidly toward the end of the quarter, with steep declines in equity markets, widening credit spreads, declining property prices and the failure of several banks," said Michel Tilmant, CEO of ING, in a statement Wednesday.

ING said its commercial performance was "resilient," as net production of client balances, excluding the impact of currencies, was 38 billion euros in the third quarter, driven by savings and deposits growth of 12.9 billion euros and lending growth of 22.9 billion euros.

The company said it expects pressure on asset prices to continue in the fourth quarter, while "weakening economic conditions will put pressure on results into 2009."

Last month, ING entered into an agreement to receive an investment of 10 billion euros from the Netherlands government.

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