- Should Homeowners Be Able to Stop Paying Mortgage?
- Buffett's Predictions For Next Year—And Every Year
- The World's Biggest Debtor Nations
- Goldman Sachs Party Ban: No Gatherings of 12 or More
- Fed Tweaking Plan to Pull Money Back out of Economy
- Scientists Gone Wild: Climate Debate Turns Nasty
- Blue Nile CEO: Having 'Best Cyber Monday Ever'
- Slideshow: The Real Cost of the 12 Days of Christmas
- Oil Demand Sees Year-Over-Year Rise, First Since 2007
- Blue Nile CEO: 'We're Having the Best Cyber Monday Ever'
- Best Online Retailers to Buy Now: Internet Analyst
- ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue: A Financial Success
- Cyber Monday: The Last Vestige of Dotcom Hype
- Dubai Fear is 'Noise'—Stay Fully Invested: Strategist
- Tech Comes to Holiday Shopping's Rescue?
- Timeless and Time-Tested Warren Buffett Watch Predictions
- Roginsky: The Botax Whose Time Has Come
- Buy or Hold: Analyst Rates 10 Retail Stocks
MOST SHARED
- Timeless and Time-Tested Warren Buffett Watch Predictions
- Black Friday Sales Disappoint Investors; Amazon Up
- Tiger Woods Wants to Protect Family Privacy: Agent
- Governments Must Take Steps To Avoid More Dubais: El-Erian
- Get Paid Six Figures to Wear a T-Shirt?
- Tamminen: Copenhagen And Beyond
- BofA Aims to Clearly Spell Out Credit Card Terms
- Oil Demand Sees Year-Over-Year Rise, First Since 2007
- Regulators List Systemic Risk Institutions: Report
- Amazon's Kindle Sales Hit Monthly Record in November
Credit Agricole, France's biggest retail bank, posted a fourth-quarter loss on Wednesday
as it booked large writedowns due to the global credit crunch and said it was not planning any major acquisitions.
![]() |
Eighteen analysts polled by Reuters had given an average net loss forecast of 627 million euros.
Credit Agricole, which analysts have speculated might be interested in weakened French rival Societe Generale, said it was not considering major acquisitions.
Agricole is also tussling with Spanish businessman Jaime Botin to gain influence over Spanish bank Bankinter.
"We have built a solid model. With its sound capital base, the group will make organic growth its priority and it is not considering any significant new acquisitions," Agricole Chairman Rene Carron said in a statement.
The credit crisis, which has been caused by writedowns on U.S. subprime mortgages, has triggered losses at many of the world's top banks.
In February, SocGen reported a record fourth-quarter net loss of 3.35 billion euros.
SocGen booked a total of 2.9 billion euros in writedowns and its earnings were also hit by 4.9 billion euros of trading losses which SocGen has blamed on rogue deals carried out by one of its junior traders.
France's biggest listed bank, BNP Paribas, managed to post a fourth-quarter net profit of around 1 billion euros in February, although this was down 42 percent from the previous year.
Credit Agricole shares closed 5.8 percent higher at 18.20 euros on Wednesday. The stock has fallen by around 20 percent since the start of 2008.
- Ever wished your cab driver would stop chatting and just get to where you're going? Well, that moment is closer than ever.
- UPS is giving its customers the option to offset its carbon emissions when sending a package.
- Romania's presidential campaign has been rocked by a video that may show the president striking a 10-year-old boy.
- Raising alligators is hard work, and the fickle taste of rich consumers has just made it much harder, says the NY Times.
- A recent issue of ESPN Magazine was one of its top sellers ever, and it only took scantily clad athletes to make it happen.
- The continued real estate boom in China is partially fueled by a generational flood of newlyweds.












