The share price of financial services group ING plunged 27% to €7.34 on Friday, forcing the company to publish preliminary third quarter results.

The Volkskrant says investors were speculating that ING would have to call on the Dutch government for help this weekend.
Finance minister Wouter Bos has set aside €20bn to shore up healthy financial institutions and the paper says CEO Michel Tilmant has been spotted at the finance ministry in The Hague several times last week.
ING said on Friday after the Amsterdam stock exchange closed that it expects to post a net loss of some €500m, its first quarterly loss ever, as it battles the turmoil on the financial markets.
But ING, the Netherlands’ biggest listed bank, stressed that its capital position is in line with targets. ‘Current developments in financial markets are unprecedented,’ said Tilmant in a statement. ‘ING’s business model is sound and our commercial performance is solid, however that does not mean that we are immune to the external environment.’
Despite posting its first quarterly loss since the group was founded in 1991, a spokesman told Reuters news agency that ING would still post a profit of €2.5bn for the first nine months of the year. Definitive figures will be published on November 12.
For the full ING statement, click here