Amsterdam - The price of shares in Dutch bank and insurer ING Bank continued its free fall on Friday.

Half an hour after trading began at the Amsterdam stock exchange ING shares had lost 7.61 per cent and stood at 4.26 euros (5.41 dollars) per share.

The continued drop in share value was triggered following the publication of ING's final quarterly report on Wednesday.

The report said the bank had suffered a loss of 3.7 billion euros in 2008, compared with a profit of 2.4 billion euros in the same period in
2007.

ING's net loss for all of 2008 amounted to 729 million euros, compared with a net profit of 9.2 billion euros in 2007.

Last month ING announced a drastic plan to cut costs that would include shedding some 7,000 jobs globally, 2,700 of these in the Netherlands.

Speaking on Dutch financial television RTLZ, Dutch financial analyst Willem Middelkoop said the current value of ING shares is "substantially below the red-line minimum of 10 euros per share recommended for financial companies trading on the stock exchange."

He added the continued drop in share value "increases the chances that we will see Financial Minister Wouter Bos announce new government support for ING Group this weekend."

The first time the Dutch government came to ING's rescue was on October 19, when it gave the bank a capital injection of 10 billion euros after its share value lost 27 per cent, down to 7.33 euros.

At the time, the Dutch central bank (DNB) emphasized that ING was a "healthy, robust and well managed company," adding that ING belonged to one of "the world's strongest banks."

The International Netherlands Group (ING) is a 1992 merger of several Dutch banks and insurance companies. Its original parent company was established in 1743.

ING is active in banking, insurance and asset management and has more than 75 million customers worldwide.

Late 2007, ING had some 338 billion euros in saving deposits, making it the second largest retail bank worldwide, after Japanese Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. (dpa)