Netherlands' ING Posts Euro793 Mln Loss In 1Q

"Our first priorities are to reduce costs, risk and leverage to strengthen the Group," Hommen said in a statement.

Shares fell 10.3 percent to close at euro7 in Amsterdam. They are down from euro24 a year ago, but up from a low of euro2.30 on March 9.

"The drag of distressed assets, and provisions for market volatility are still weighing on overall performance," said Cubillas Ding, an analyst at consultancy firm Celent.

ING's insurance arm lost euro979 million on a mix of bad investments and a euro550 million charge on insurance contracts that aren't worth as much as the company originally thought.

Its banking arm had pretax profit of around euro700 million, benefiting from the large numbers of investors keeping their money in cash accounts on which ING pays them little interest. However, provisions for bad loans rose dramatically, to euro772 million from euro98 million a year ago.

ING said its Tier 1 ratio — a key measure of solvency for banks — rose to 9.7 percent from 9.3 percent at year-end.

According to its balance sheet, total equity was euro30.5 billion, euro10 billion of which is due to the direct investment lifeline it received from the Dutch government last year.