Netherlands rescues SNS in €3.7bn bailout Another Dutch bank nationalisation, spiralling property losses in Spain and vast writedowns at France's third-biggest bank came together on Friday to cap a torrid week for eurozone lenders. Announcing a €3.7bn bailout of mortgage lender SNS Reaal, Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said in a statement he had "looked at every alternative involving private parties," but found none that could guarantee the stability of the Dutch banking system. An earlier plan to have ING and ABN Amro, two other bailed-out institutions, rescue SNS had been blocked by the European Commission on state-aid grounds. Under the terms of SNS's rescue, shareholders and subordinated debt holders will see their stakes wiped out. SNS, whose chairman, chief executive and finance director all resigned, had found itself in trouble after its foreign loan portfolio - much of it in Spain - had suffered extreme losses. As if to stress the point, three of Spain's biggest banks reported full-year results on Friday showing a continued deterioration in loan losses. Banco Popular, which fared the worst, slumped to a €2.46bn loss after its non-performing loan ratio spiked in the fourth quarter of the year. The country's biggest bank, Santander, had disappointed investors with big writedowns on Thursday. Meanwhile, France's Crédit Agricole reminded investors of another ongoing theme among European banks - that of goodwill writedowns - as lenders comply with regulators" threats to name and shame groups that fail to reprice the book value of businesses acquired before the 2008 financial crisis. Crédit Agricole, France's third-largest bank by market value, said it would take a €2.68bn goodwill writedown, including a €923m repricing of its consumer finance unit, while there was a further €852m writedown of its Italian retail banking arm. However, its shares rose more than 3 per cent to €7.53, which analysts said reflected an increasing confidence among investors in the robustness of the European banking sector. Crédit Agricole included a €267m writedown on its 20 per cent stake in Banco Espirito Santo, Portugal's biggest publicly traded bank. Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest lender, is taking a €1.9bn writedown on goodwill and other intangible assets. They come two weeks after the European Union's markets watchdog told companies that they would be named if they failed to properly write down goodwill impairments.