Yahoo Finance Intesa SanPaolo bank posts $7 billion 4Q loss
Italian bank Intesa SanPaolo posts $7 billion 4Q loss on write-downs to clean up books
MILAN (AP) -- Italian bank Intesa SanPaolo has posted a 5.2 billion euro ($7 billion) fourth-quarter loss due to a huge write-down to clean up its books for a rigorous stress test.
The bank took a write-down of 5.2 billion euros in the quarter, which widened the quarterly loss from 83 million euros last year. For the year, the bank said Friday its losses were 4.55 billion euros, compared with earnings of 1.6 billion euros last year.
The balance sheet cleanup, which included increasing its provisioning for bad loans by half to 7.1 billion euros, comes as the European Central Bank starts a review of the region's banks to identify weak spots in their finances and, if needed, request fixes.
Intesa SanPaolo previously took a write-down of 10 billion euros in 2011.
