ING and Hypo Real Estate rack up eu3.6bn losses in third quarter

The latest round of banking pain continued its tour around Europe yesterday, with Dutch giant ING and Germany's Hypo Real Estate announcing a combined €3.6bn in third-quarter losses. Hypo said it will seek additional rescue funds after a bigger-than-expected third-quarter loss of Eu3.1bn.

ING meanwhile, which got a €10bn lifeline from the Dutch government last month, said write-downs amounted to €1.51bn in the third quarter as it said it lost €478m. The news comes two days after HSBC announced a $5bn loss on US home loans and Spain's Santander went to shareholders in a €7.2bn rights issue to shore up its finances.