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 €3.1bn.

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.

The Independent