Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Commerzbank AG of Germany andFrance's Credit Agricole SA booked losses on their Greek governmentdebt two days after creditors agreed to the biggest sovereignrestructuring in history.

RBS, Britain's biggest government-owned lender, posted awider-than-expected full-year loss after taking a sovereign-debtimpairment of 1.1 billion pounds ($1.7 billion). Commerzbank,Germany's second-biggest lender, booked a 700 million-euro ($1.1billion) writedown on Greek debt in the fourth quarter. CreditAgricole, France's third-largest bank, reported a quarterly lossafter 220 million euros in impairments on Greek debt.

Dexia SA and Allianz SE also announced Greek writedowns today.The nation's private creditors agreed to a debt swap on Feb. 21,paving the way for a second bailout and averting what Deutsche BankAG Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann said would have been a“meltdown” worse than the collapse of Lehman Brothers HoldingsInc.

“Earnings were hit by Greek writedowns, but at least the worstis now behind us,” said Lutz Roehmeyer, who helps oversee about11.5 billion euros at Landesbank Berlin Investment in Germany'scapital. “By aggressively writing down their holdings, banks wantto show that they can cope even if Greece defaults down theroad.”

RBS, Commerzbank and Credit Agricole have all written down theirGreek debt by at least 74 percent, in line with estimated losses inthe securities' net present value from the swap.

The banks' share performance was mixed as investors gaugedwhether the worst of the sovereign-debt crisis, writedowns andcapital-raising to boost financial cushions were over.

RBS shares jumped 4.8 percent to 28.63 pence as of 12:06 p.m. inLondon on optimism that Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hester hascompleted the worst of the writedowns and as demand recovered atits U.S. business.

Commerzbank slid 4.6 percent to 1.98 euros in Frankfurt as theGerman lender unveiled a plan to increase core Tier 1 capital bymore than 1 billion euros by buying back hybrid instruments withnew shares.

Credit Agricole, which controls Greece's Emporiki Bank of GreeceSA, declined 3.7 percent to 4.83 euros. The bank said it can'tcommit to any target to stem Emporiki's losses.

Allianz, Dexia

Allianz, Europe's biggest insurer, posted fourth-quarterearnings that missed estimates as the Munich-based company booked1.9 billion euros of non-operating impairments on Greek sovereigndebt and investments, particularly in financials, for the year.

The insurer wrote down its Greek bonds to market values at theend of 2011, representing 24.7 percent of their nominal value.Shares of Allianz were up 0.8 percent to 90.57 euros.

Dexia, the Belgian lender being broken up, reported a recordloss of 11.6 billion euros today. Its writedowns on Greek sovereigndebt totaled 3.61 billion euros last year, including 1.25 billioneuros of impairments taken by its former Belgian bank unit beforeit was sold on Oct. 20. In addition, Dexia wrote down an additional1.01 billion euros on derivative contracts tied to the Greekdebt.

Dexia shares fell 5 percent to 29.2 euro cents.

Europe's largest lenders and insurers are likely to accede tothe Greek swap because they've already written down their sovereignholdings and want to avert the risk of a default, analysts saidearlier this week. The success of the swap depends on how manyinvestors participate in the transaction.

Under the deal, investors will forgive 53.5 percent of theirprincipal and exchange their remaining holdings for new Greekgovernment bonds and notes from the European Financial StabilityFacility. The plan seeks to reduce Greece's debt burden by 107billion euros, the Institute of International Finance, which lednegotiations, said earlier this week. The swap is meant to helpreduce the country's debt to 120.5 percent of gross domesticproduct by 2020.

RBS reported a net loss for 2011 of 2 billion pounds comparedwith a deficit of 1.1 billion pounds a year earlier. That was worsethan the 1.1 billion-pound median estimate of 11 analysts surveyedby Bloomberg.

Credit Agricole, based outside Paris, reported a fourth-quarternet loss of 3.07 billion euros, wider than analysts' estimates.Chief Executive Officer Jean-Paul Chifflet set aside money at thelender's Greek consumer-banking network and booked about 2.6billion euros in writedowns on investments including its stake inSpain's Bankinter SA and Banco Espirito Santo SA of Portugal in thequarter.

Commerzbank said full-year profit slid to 638 million euros from1.43 billion euros.

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