Fortis, the financial services group, on Tuesday unveiled a bigger-than-expected fall in first quarter profits after further writedowns related to the credit market.

Net profit was €808m, down from €1.17bn in the same period last year. The Belgo-Dutch group recorded €380m in fresh impairments from the credit market turmoil in the first quarter on top of the €2.7bn pre-tax subprime-linked writedown announced in March.