Formed by the merger of the two companies Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) and Paribas on 22 May 2000, BNP Paribas is the largest Global Banking Group in the world. They are also the largest company in the world in terms of assets with over $3.1 trillion as of October 2010. Headquartered at Boulevard des Italiens, Paris, BNP Paribas operate in over 80 countries and hire more than 204,600 employees globally. They own a 75% stake in the Belgian Banking Business, Fortis Bank, a 19.2% stake in the Bank of Nanjing (formerly known as Nanjing City Commercial Bank), and BancWest, a network of branches in the US.
BNP Paribas has three core businesses: Retail Banking, Corporate & Investment Banking and Investment Solutions which includes Asset Management. Retail Banking is the largest, accounting for 45% of its revenues and 59% of the group’s headcount in 2009. As of 31 December 2009, the Investment Solutions unit had €820 billion of assets under management and €4 trillion under custody.
BNP Paribas are known for being one of the few financial institutions to escape the Credit Crisis relatively unscathed, reporting a €3 billion net profit for the year of 2008, and €5.8 billion for 2009. One of the reasons why it managed to achieve this was by recognising the impact of the US sub-prime crisis early and closed two funds that were exposed to it on 9 August 2007.
On 2 August 2011, BNP Paribas SA, also Europe’s Largest Lender by assets, announced that second-quarter profit increased by 1.1% even though they made a €534 million writedown on Greek Sovereign Debt. Net Income rose to 2.13 billion euros from 2.11 billion euros a year earlier. Pre-tax earnings at their Investment Solutions unit increased 16% to 549 million euros.
Chief Executive Baudouin Prot, unlike many other large Financial Institutions, also announced that BNP Paribas would not be cutting jobs despite second quarter net income falling 18.7% compared to the first quarter.
Links:
BNP Paribas’ Wikipedia Page.
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