Crédit Lyonnais suffered a 26.5% decrease in third quarter profits from the same period last year as solid performance by the group's banking network was marred by €75m ($75m) of provisions on the bank's industrial equity portfolio.

The French banking group, which recorded net profits of €145m for quarter three, said that it would be making job cuts in its brokerage business but refused to give details of the number of redundancies planned. In recent months Crédit Lyonnais has embarked on a cost-cutting programme in its corporate and investment banking division.