ING books first-ever quarterly loss

ING Groep NV posted its first quarterly loss today after incurring substantial losses arising from the global credit crunch. The Amsterdam, Netherlands-based financial services company posted a third-quarter net loss of 478 million euros ($602 million), or 22 cents a share, compared with a profit of 2.31 billion euros ($2.9 billion), or 1.08 a share, in the year-ago period. During the quarter, ING took impairments of 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion) on equities and debt securities. “As we approach the end of 2008, markets continue to be turbulent, so we expect pressure on asset prices to continue to impact results in the fourth quarter, while weakening economic conditions will put pressure on results into 2009,” ING chief executive officer Michel Tilmant said in a statement.