Italian banking giant UniCredit hit by huge losses

UniCredit blamed the losses on 10.17 billion euros in write-downs "due to the negative impact of the new macroeconomic and regulatory scenario."

Excluding the write-down, it said the loss was 474 million euros, still down from a net profit of 334 million euros in the same quarter last year.

It also approved a 7.5-billion-euro capital increase and said that by 2015 it would cut 5,200 jobs in Italy -- around 12 per cent of its workforce.

The recapitalisation will be UniCredit's third since the start of the global financial crisis in 2008 after it had to raise fresh funds in 2009 and 2010.