Revenue in the BNP Paribas’ Insurance and Wealth & Asset Management (WAM) division rose by 6.6% to €5.3bn in 2015, up from €5bn the previous year.
WAM’s revenues, at €3bn, were up by 7.4% (4.3% in constant currency (cc)) compared to 2014 with good growth across all the business units. Operating expenses, at €2.3bn, were up by 5.8% (+1.9% cc).
WAM’s pre-tax income rose 4.1% to €740m after strong growth in private banking revenues from Turkey and the United States,
Insurance revenues grew by 5.7% (5.1% cc) to €2.3bn, compared to 2014. Operating expenses, at €1.2bn, were up by 7.3% (5.5% cc); while pre-tax income rose by 6.8% to €1.3bn compared with a year ago.
Fourth quarter
During the fourth quarter of 2015, Insurance and WAM achieved revenue growth of 10.8% compared with Q4 2014.
BNP Group
BNP Paribas Group achieved revenue growth of 9.6% to €42.9bn during 2015, compared with 2014. The revenues of all the operating divisions were up compared to 2014 with a solid performance by Domestic Markets (1.6%), and a strong rise at International Financial Services (14.5%) and CIB (13.2%).
BNP actively implemented the remediation plan, which results from the comprehensive settlement with the US authorities and continued to reinforce its compliance and control procedures.
The bank also had to write-down the value of assets at its Italian BNL unit.
Group revenue in the fourth quarter was up 2.9% to €10.4bn, compared with Q4 2014.
Net income during the quarter, however, dropped sharply by 51.7% to €665m, down from €1.4bn a year ago.
The bank also booked a one-off additional provision of €100m in connection with the remediation plan to industrialise existing processes. The group booked €6bn last year as a result of the settlement.
Operating division revenues were up by 4.8%: rising by 0.4% for Domestic Markets, 6.8% for International Financial Services, and 8.4% for CIB.
Solid results
Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, chief executive of BNP Paribas, said: “With €6.7bn in net income, BNP Paribas delivered solid results thanks to its integrated and diversified model serving its clients. The group had a good operating performance with revenues up in its three operating divisions and a cost of risk that remains at a moderate level.”
Investment banking cuts
The group also announced plans to cut investment banking costs by 12% by 2019 in order to boost productivity. BNP Paribas has been selling non-core assets and cutting back on operations as it looks to achieve a 10% return on equity and build up capital.
