BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas (French pronunciation: [beɛnpe paʁiba]; sometimes referred to as BNPP or BNP) is a French multinational universal bank and financial services holding company headquartered in Paris. It was founded in 2000 from the merger of two of France's foremost financial institutions, Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) and Paribas. It also incorporates many other major institutions through successive acquisitions, including Fortis Bank in Belgium, Direkt Anlage Bank in Germany, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Italy, Banque Générale du Luxembourg in Luxembourg, and Türk Ekonomi Bankası in Turkey. The group has also been present in the United States through its subsidiaries Bank of the West until 2023 and First Hawaiian Bank until 2019. With 190,000 employees, the bank is organized into three major business areas: Commercial, Personal Banking & Services (CPBS); Investment & Protection Services (IPS); and Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB).
BNP Paribas is listed on Euronext Paris and is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index. It is the second largest bank in Europe and eighth largest bank in the world by total assets. It became one of the five largest banks in the world following the 2008 financial crisis. It is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board. In the Forbes Global 2000, BNP Paribas was ranked as the 33rd largest public company in the world. It has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank.
Although a French banking group, the Belgian government has been a significant shareholder since 2009 (with 5.3% equity ownership as of mid-2023) as a result of the group's acquisition of Fortis Bank Belgium, heir to the Société Générale de Belgique established in 1822.
In 1999, BNP and Société Générale fought a complex battle on the stock market, with Société Générale bidding for Paribas and BNP bidding for Société Générale and counter-bidding for Paribas. BNP's bid for Société Générale failed, while its bid for Paribas succeeded leading to a merger of BNP and Paribas one year later on 23 May 2000.
In 2006, BNP Paribas purchased Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), Italy's sixth-largest bank. On 9 August 2007, BNP Paribas became the first major financial group to acknowledge the impact of the sub-prime crisis by closing two funds exposed to it. This day is now generally seen as the start of the 2008 financial crisis and the bank's quick reaction saved it from the fate of other large European banks such as UBS.
On 6 October 2008, BNP took over 75% of troubled bank Fortis' activities in Belgium, and 66% in Luxembourg, in exchange for the Belgian government becoming the new group's major shareholder. The sales of the Fortis shares was suspended by a court order from the Court of Appeal on Friday, 12 December In the end of January, the Belgian government and BNP negotiated for a 75% partnership in Fortis Bank Belgium. Fortis Insurance Belgium would be reintegrated in Fortis Holding.
On 11 February, Fortis' shareholders decided that Fortis Bank Belgium and Fortis Insurance Belgium should not become the property of BNP Paribas. However, the acquisition was completed, and BNP Paribas took 75% shareholding and renamed the new subsidiary BNP Paribas Fortis. After this only Fortis Insurance International was left in Fortis Holding and this was renamed as Ageas, a business that had Insurance all over Europe and Asia. In April 2024, it was announced BNP Paribas had acquired Fosun International's entire 9% stake in Ageas, worth €730 million. The remaining Fortis Bank Netherlands was in the hands of the Dutch Government which merged it with other ABN AMRO holdings it already owned under the name ABN AMRO.
In May 2009, BNP Paribas became the majority shareholder (65.96%) of BGL (formerly Fortis Bank Luxembourg), the State of Luxembourg retaining 34% making BNP the eurozone's largest bank by deposits held. On 21 September, the bank's registered name was changed to BGL BNP Paribas and in February 2010, BGL BNP Paribas became the 100% owner of BNP Paribas Luxembourg. The transfer was finalised on 1 October 2010 with the incorporation of BNP Paribas Luxembourg's business in the operational platforms of BGL BNP Paribas. In 2013 BNP Paribas was awarded the Bank of the Year award by The International Financing Review ("IFR"), Thomson Reuters' leading financial industry publication.
BNP Paribas reached an agreement in December 2013 to acquire Rabobank's Polish unit BGZ Bank for around $1.4 billion. In September 2014, BNP completed the purchase of BGZ Bank for a final fee stated in the media to be $1.3 billion. In December 2021, BNP Paribas announced to exit US retail banking business by selling its Bank of the West to the Bank of Montreal for $16.3bn.
BNP Paribas has around $80 billion under management in Asia by 2024. The bank has hired 20 private bankers, including Tiffeny Situ from Morgan Stanley, Wendy Chan from Citigroup and Martin Loh from Credit Suisse Group, as part of its expansion program.
BNP Paribas and BPCE have finalized an agreement of a joint venture to create Estreem, to become a top-three European payment processor in February, 2025. The company is expected to handle 17 billion transactions annually, which will make it the leader with 30% volume of card payment in France.
In February 2025, Philippe Maillard was appointed as group COO by BNP Paribas. His tenure would be effective from February 11, replacing Laurent David. As a company veteran since 1992, Maillard will oversee technology, IT, data, and operations. He will also be joining the bank’s executive committee.
In 2022, total revenues of €50.4 billion represent an increase of 9% compared to 2021, BNP Paribas remains at the top of the French banks' ranking in terms of activity. During this year, BNP Paribas Group net income attributable to equity holders increased to 7.5% (to 10.2 billion euros). The geographic breakdown of Net Banking Income (NBI) at the end of 2020 is as follows: Europe (72.2%), North America (12.9%), Asia Pacific (8.6%) and others (6.3%).
The BNP Paribas logo since 2000 (designed by Laurent Vincent under the leadership of the Communications Director, Antoine Sire) is called the "courbe d'envol" (curve of taking flight). The stars allude to Europe and universality. The transformation of the stars into birds conveys openness, freedom, growth, and the ability to change and adapt. The shape and movement of the curve places the logo in the universe of life. The green square symbolises nature and optimism.
The General Management and the executive committee are composed as follows:
As of 19 February 2025
As of 31 December 2023
BNP Paribas CIB (Corporate and Institutional Banking) is the global investment banking arm of BNP Paribas, the largest banking group in the world. In October 2010, BNP Paribas was ranked by Bloomberg and Forbes as the largest bank and largest company in the world by assets with over US$3.1 trillion.
BNP Paribas CIB's main centres are in Paris and London, with large scale operations in New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and smaller operations in almost every financial centre in the world. It employs 185,000 people across 56 countries and provides financing, advisory and capital markets services. BNP Paribas CIB is a globally recognised leader in two areas of expertise: trading derivatives on all asset classes, and structured financing. BNP Paribas CIB also has a large corporate advisory network in Europe and Asia. BNP Paribas CIB has 13,000 clients, consisting of companies, financial institutions, governments, investment funds and hedge funds.
BNP Paribas CIB benefits from the Group's large asset base (over €2 trillion) and diverse business model, and was resilient through the 2008 financial crisis. Revenues from BNP Paribas CIB nearly doubled in the second quarter of 2009 as robust investor demand boosted revenues from the bank's fixed income trading business unit. CIB's revenues totaled €3.351 billion (US$4.82 billion) for the quarter, up 81 percent from the second quarter of 2008, and following record revenues of €3.696 billion in the first quarter of 2009.
In 2016 BNP reached an undisclosed settlement with a Jewish employee, following a $40M lawsuit. The employee had been made to watch a training video in the form of a parody of the movie Downfall, portraying Adolf Hitler as the CEO of Deutsche Bank, one of BNP's competitors and the Nazi soldiers around him as Deutsche Bank executives. Also, his colleagues made a number of anti-semitic comments during his time at BNP Paribas.
On 30 May 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States Department of Justice was negotiating a possible guilty plea with BNP Paribas as well as the size of the resulting fine for violating U.S. regulations and evading US sanctions. The Justice Department sought a fine of more than US $10 billion, which was expected to be reduced to $8 or $9 billion in negotiations. BNP Paribas was said to have laundered up to US$100 billion from the sanctioned countries of Sudan, Iran, and Cuba.
On 1 July 2014, BNP Paribas pled guilty in a New York state court to falsifying business records as well as conspiracy in connection to those falsifications. It was also expected to plead guilty in federal court to violating laws against money-laundering. It agreed to pay $8.9 billion, the largest fine ever for violating U.S. sanctions, and substantially more than the previous record of $1.9 billion. BNP Paribas was also barred for one year under the plea agreement from certain US dollar-dominated transactions. The fine exceeded the bank's $6.4 billion 2013 annual income and the $1.1 billion it previously had allocated for the anticipated fine.
The bank's failure to cooperate with the multi-year investigation was given as a significant factor in the size of the fine. Additionally, BNP Paribas continued to process sanctioned transactions after the investigation began. After the fine was announced, BNP said it would be "just fine" and that it had "a comprehensive plan" to avoid similar violations in the future. The company's stock, which had fallen 12% since news of the investigation first leaked, rose 4% on the announcement. To comply with the transaction ban, BNP Paribas will use a third party to clear its US transactions.
On 6 February 2024, the Federal Reserve announced that it had lifted a pair of 2014 enforcement actions it imposed on France's BNP Paribas, after the bank overhauled its compliance with U.S. sanctions laws.[1]
In 2010 the French government's Autorité de la concurrence fined BNP and 10 other banks €384 million for colluding to charge unjustified fees on check processing, including extra fees during the transition from paper check transfer to "Exchanges Check-Image" electronic transfer.
The German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung FOCUS, Bloomberg and the French Les Échos newspapers published an article regarding a €152 million mistrade (erroneous trade) in which BNP Paribas Arbitrage was allegedly involved. The bank has sold securities for €326,400 to the investor Armin S. but the value of the securities is €163 million according to the bank. According to the article, the error remained unnoticed for several days. BNP has even reconfirmed the original price.
The Financial Times published an article in March 2018 about the case with the title "BNP Paribas failed to book trades in Germany for a week". It cites internal documents that show it did not book all trades that happened in structured products in Germany from 2 to 9 December 2015. The Financial Times estimates that 8,500 trades might have been affected. It also questions if the bank has hedged their positions if the trades have not been booked.
BNP Paribas has been a major sponsor of tennis. In 1973 it became the major sponsor of the French Open, one of the four prestigious Grand Slam tournaments in the sport. In 2001 the bank began to sponsor the Davis Cup before becoming the title sponsor in 2002. In 2002 it became the sponsor of the Paris Masters, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.
In 2008 it became the sponsor of the BNP Paribas Primrose Bordeaux, an ATP Challenger Tour tournament. The company's sponsorship expanded to the United States in 2009 when it became the title sponsor of the Indian Wells Masters, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 two-week tournament in California. It also sponsored the BNP Paribas Showdown and BNP Paribas Tennis Classic exhibition tournaments held in New York City and London respectively. The Stanford Classic, since 1992, is instead directly sponsored by the Bank of the West subsidiary.
In 2018, BNP Paribas created the production company BNP Paribas Pictures, and supports young cinema talents through an investment fund dedicated to the financing and co-production of the first films of new talents in Cinema, the Fonds Nouveaux Talents. In 2019, the group supports the Femis Residence and Mille visages, which aims to democratize the cinema environment and create bridges between the different professions in cinema. The group also participates in the restoration of cinematographic works such as Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" in 2003.
Between 1981 and early May 2020, BNP Paribas was a partner of the Belgian club RSC Anderlecht for 39 years through BNP Paribas Fortis.