French banking group Natixis fell into the red in the second quarter of 2008, suffering a net loss of €1.02 billion ($1.5 billion), contrasting with a net income of €1.01 billion a year ago, and reported €1.51 billion of debt write-downs stemming from the global credit crunch.

The group is due to tap capital markets for additional funds with a rights issue.

Natixis was created in the 2006 merger of investment-banking and asset-management businesses of France's Groupe Caisse d'Epargne and Groupe Banque Populaire.

On the private banking side of its operations, Natixis gave few figures for results, but added that it had the objective of achieving a compound annual growth rate for assets of 13 per cent between 2007 and 2010.