Be ready for more market shocks: Dutch finmin

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Investors should be prepared for further shocks after U.S. investment bank Bear Stearns BSC.N was forced to seek emergency funding, the finance minister of the Netherlands said on Saturday.

"If it tells us anything it tells us that the crisis is not over yet and that nobody really knows what is still to come," Wouter Bos said. "The best thing to do now is to be prepared."

Bear Stearns' stock almost halved in value on Friday after it turned to JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) and the Federal Reserve for emergency financing, heightening nervousness in financial markets that have been racked by months of turbulence.

Bear Stearns has more exposure to the U.S. bond markets than its competitors, and has a large mortgage-backed securities business. It was among the first to disclose the impact of the subprime mortgage market meltdown when two of its leveraged hedge funds collapsed last summer, losing $1.6 billion.

"I guess we will have to remain vigilant because it is going to take a while before calm settles down again," Bos told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Brussels.

"The main characteristic of this financial crisis is its unpredictability."

Bos said European regulators were ready to cope with any similar problems to the liquidity squeeze suffered by Bear Stearns and noted Britain and Germany had limited fallout from cash crunches at Northern Rock NRK.L and some German banks.

He also said surveys were being carried out in Europe and by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on whether regulators need more powers and whether new legislation was needed to improve transparency in markets and risk accountability.

"I guess we will be able to arrive at those conclusions in the next few months or so," he said.

Bos was speaking at the Brussels Forum, a conference on transatlantic issues.

(Reporting by William Schomberg; Editing by Matthew Jones)