20.12.2007 20:00 Real Estate
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That will cause its corporate and investment division Calyon to post a loss for the year, it said in a statement.
Credit Agricole, France's largest retail bank, said it has "decided to strengthen its already strict writedown policy related to financial instruments exposed to the current credit crisis."
"The crisis is settling in, and the consequences are becoming apparent," the bank's chairman, Rene Carron, said in a conference call with reporters.
The new charge comes in addition to a 546-million-euro provision the bank announced last month.
The bank said the writedown "does not correspond to an actual loss on the related assets, but a conservative appreciation of the current worsening market conditions."
Banks and finance institutions around the world have since August been grappling with the effects of a meltdown in the US high-risk -- or subprime -- mortgage sector.
A wave of foreclosures has cost banks that held securities backed by such mortgages billions of euros (dollars) in losses.
Earlier Thursday, the major US investment bank Bear Stearns announced a 1.9-billion-dollar writedown as its mortgage-backed securities continued to lose value.
