Amsterdam - Dutch bank and insurance giant ING Group suffered a loss of 478 million euros (609.93 million dollars) in the third quarter of 2008, the firm's first-ever quarterly loss, ING reported on Wednesday.

The quarterly report said the loss was partly the result of write-downs of more than 1.5 billion euros on ING's various assets, including those related to the US real-estate market.

In the third quarter of 2007, ING posted a net profit of 2.3 billion euros.

Wednesday's quarterly report did not come as a surprise.

After suffering heavy losses on the Amsterdam stock exchange in September and early October, ING announced on October 17 that it was expecting a net loss of around half a billion euros.

On October 19, ING Group received 10 billion euros in support from the Dutch government.

In exchange, the Dutch government was given securities that are expected to generate some 8.5 per cent interest per year, plus the right to appoint two members in ING's management board.

"The third quarter was very challenging for all financial companies," ING chairman Michel Tilmant said on Wednesday.

Tilmant noted the unrest at the financial market was not over yet, saying he expected the fourth quarter of 2008 to be difficult as well.

"Weak economic circumstances will affect our results also in 2009," he said. (dpa)