Credit Agricole hit by Greek losses

Credit Agricole is France's biggest retail bank

Credit Agricole has reported lower-than-expected quarterly profits after being hit by big losses in Greece.

Net profit came in at 433m euros ($583m; £380m) for the fourth quarter of 2009. Analysts had forecast a profit of 476m euros for the French bank.

But it was an improvement on the 309m-euro deficit seen a year ago when its investment banking arm made big losses.

For the whole of 2009, the bank made a profit of 1.12bn euros, a 10% increase on its 2008 performance.

The bank was optimistic about the year ahead, saying "initial trends in 2010 confirm that all of the group's businesses are performing well".

However, its earnings were hit by losses at its Greek bank, Emporiki, which made a loss of 583 million euros in 2009.