BNP Paribas Reports Rise In Q2 Wealth, Asset Management Pre-Tax Income, AuM

Tom Burroughes

3 August 2015

Pre-tax income at the wealth and asset management arm of , the French banking group, rose to €186 million ($203.6 million) in the second quarter of 2015 from €170 million in the previous three months, but down from €212 million in the same period a year ago, it said late last week.

Revenues for this segment of the bank stood at €766 million, up from €723 million in Q1 and €726 million a year earlier, it said.

Operating costs and depreciation in Q1 were €579 million, up from €563 million in the previous quarter.

Within insurance, wealth and asset management, BNP Paribas said assets under management stood at €949 million, up 10.2 per cent year-on-year, at 30 June, boosted by improved financial markets and by the impact of a weaker euro exchange rate.

“Wealth and asset management’s revenues, at €766 million, were up by 5.5 per cent due in particular to the good performance of wealth management in the domestic markets and in Asia, and an increase in asset management in the domestic markets,” it said.

At Bancwest, the business including private banking operations in the US, pre-tax income rose to €246 million from €171 million in the previous quarter and €184 million a year ago.

Across the whole bank, net profit attributable to shareholders stood at €2.56 billion in Q1, as against a loss of €4.218 billion a year ago and up 55 per cent from the previous quarter. Revenue rose 15.8 per cent year-on-year in Q1 to €11.079 billion. The cost/income ratio of BNP Paribas shrank in Q1 to 63.9 per cent from 66.5 per cent in the previous quarter.

Last year, BNP Paribas booked a total of €5.950 billion in costs related to the comprehensive settlement with the US authorities, which severely affected results.

The revenues of the operating divisions were up 12.2 per cent compared to the second quarter 2014 with strong growth at international financial services (+20.7 per cent) and corporate and institutional banking (+15.6 per cent); there was also continued increase in domestic markets1 (+2.7 per cent). The bank also benefited from the positive impact of the acquisitions made in 2014, it said.

As at 30 June 2015, the fully loaded Basel 3 common equity tier one ratio – a key measure of a bank’s financial strength - stood at 10.6 per cent, up by 30 basis points compared to 31 March 2015.

(An earlier version of this news item appeared last Friday on WealthBriefing, sister publication to this one and is repeated here because of the bank's Asia presence.)