(PARIS) - Bailed out Franco-Belgian bank Dexia said Friday it suffered a third quarter loss of 1.54 billion euros (1.96 billion dollars) as a result of the financial crisis.

Dexia said losses directly linked to the crisis totalled 2.19 billion euros while revenue in the three months to September came to only 315 million euros.

It blamed some 482 million euros of losses on the collapse of US investment banking giant Lehman Brothers in September and said it aimed to reduce costs by 15 percent over the next three years in a restructuring programme.

Without specifying if there would be job losses, the bank said it had already identified cost savings of 300 million euros and saw significantly more in 2009.

For the fourth quarter, Dexia warned that its results would suffer again but insisted that its capital base was solid.

Dexia has struggled badly in the financial crisis, especially since the Lehman Brothers' collapse, and had to be bailed out by the French, Belgian and Luxembourg governments to the tune of 6.4 billion euros.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.