Bailed out Franco-Belgian bank Dexia today announced a larger than expected €3.3 billion net loss for last year - thanks to US sub-prime toxic assets.
Dexia suffered €3.326 billion euro losses in total, largely due to a €2.6 billion net loss in the fourth quarter. Those figures compared with a €2.5 billion profit in 2007 including a fourth quarter profit of €587m, in the days when no one knew how toxic those assets were.
The bank's CEO Pierre Mariani offered no apology for the bank's performance but admitted corporate mistakes.
The results, he said, 'are evidence of the magnitude of a truly exceptional crisis and of the structural fragility developed in Dexia over recent years.'
'They reflect the cost of risky developments backed by inappropriate funding and concentrated far from core markets and activities that have been the historic strength of the company,' he added.
Late last year, France, Belgium and Luxembourg injected €6.4 billion into Dexia and pledged to guarantee its borrowings on the markets as its shares plunged during the worst credit crisis in generations. The 2008 figures was worse then the €3 billion loss estimated by the company late last month.
Last month Dexia announced 900 job cuts, out of 36,500 employees overall, after the euro zone entered recession. The share dividend has been cancelled, bonuses for management scrapped and salaries for directors lowered in an economy drive to save €200m.
