Top European banks suffer as measures planned

French bank Societe Generale reported an 83.7 percent fall in third-quarter net profit but said it was strong enough to withstand the global financial crisis.

Net profit fell to 183 million euros ($233.8 million) with losses tied to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and other writedowns costing the bank 1.208 billion euros in pre-tax income.�

Germany's second-biggest bank Commerzbank said it would take a 8.2 billion euro injection from the state and another 15 billion in guaranteed funding to secure refinancing. It posted a third quarter net loss of 285 million euros.

And Britain's biggest home lender HBOS Plc raised its hit from the value of risky assets and bad loans to over 5 billion pounds ($8.14 billion) as its takeover partner Lloyds TSB predicted a sharp fall in profits.

Lloyds stepped in to buy HBOS in a government-brokered deal after HBOS was hit by a global financial crisis and concerns about its exposure to Britain's weakening housing market.

The United States, Germany, France and Britain have offered to inject capital into their banks to prevent systemic meltdown.

France has earmarked 360 billion euros for the country's finance sector and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon was quoted by Le Figaro newspaper on Monday as saying that if the banks did not use the money to lend to businesses, then the government could take direct stakes in them.

The credit crunch, which stemmed from a collapse in the U.S. housing market, has prompted banks to clam up on lending to each other, businesses and households for over a year now.

STIMULUS
Governments worldwide have also put together fiscal stimulus packages to ward off the effects of a recession born of the worst financial crisis in 80 years.

The German government aims to safeguard a million jobs with its plan after last month putting together a 500 billion euro bank rescue package.

"With the package we will approve in cabinet next Wednesday, we will definitely mobilize more than 30 billion euros," Economy Minister Michael Glos told Sunday's Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

South Korea announced plans to pump an extra $11 billion into its economy next year to temper the global financial storm.

Policymakers will gather again to plot their next moves.

Euro zone finance ministers meet in Brussels later on Monday to discuss reform of institutions that manage the global financial market and bodies such as credit rating agencies, accounting rules-setters, banks and their management.

Finance chiefs from the "Group of 20" key world economies meet in Brazil later this week to prepare for a November 15 summit of world leaders to chart a way out of the financial crisis.