Crédit Agricole has reported a worse-than-expected quarterly loss of €2.85 billion, reflecting the heavy price paid for its exit from Greece and exposure to indebted euro zone countries.

Shares in France’s largest retail bank and its third-biggest by market value fell 6 per cent to €5.60 after the release of the results in the three months to the end of September. They are nonetheless up 88 per cent on this year’s low of €2.97 in May.

The result was about €1 billion worse than expectations and represented a sharp fall from the net profit in the same quarter last year of €258 million. Revenues of €3.4 billion were 32 per cent down on the third quarter of last year.

Last month Crédit Agricole agreed to sell Emporiki, its Greek subsidiary, to Alpha Bank for €1, incurring a €1.8 billion loss. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012