BNP Paribas Profit Beats Forecasts -- Update

By Noemie Bisserbe 

PARIS--French bank BNP Paribas SA on Friday reported better-than-expected third-quarter net profit, boosted by a pickup in fixed income trading.

The Paris-based lender, France's largest listed bank by assets, said net profit rose 3% to EUR1.89 billion ($2.06 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30, despite a EUR202 million accounting charge related to its debt. Revenue grew by 2% to EUR10.59 billion.

The net profit figure was ahead of analysts' expectations of EUR1.62 billion, according to a poll by data provider FactSet.

The French bank reaped the rewards of a bond-trading rebound that has boosted third quarter earnings of U.S. and other European banks, and helped make up for low interest rates and tepid economic growth.

BNP Paribas' fixed income business posted a 41% jump in revenue, pushing its corporate and investment banking revenue 13% higher to EUR2.91 billion in the three months through September.

The bank's international financial services division, which includes retail banks outside the eurozone, wealth management, consumer finance and insurance, also reported a 4% increase in revenue to EUR3.95 billion.

However, revenue for BNP Paribas' retail banks in France, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg was flat at EUR3.92 billion, hurt by persistently low interest rates.

Higher overall earnings helped lift BNP Paribas' core tier one ratio, which measures its top-quality capital such as equity and retained earnings against risk-weighted assets, to 11.4% in September, from 11.1% in June.

BNP Paribas said it still targeted a 12% core tier one ratio by the end of 2018.

The French bank's leverage ratio, another gauge of a bank's financial strength that measures capital held against total assets, was stable at 4% in September.

BNP Paribas is the first major French bank to report third quarter earnings. Société Générale publishes its results on Nov. 3 and Crédit Agricole on Nov. 8.

Write to Noemie Bisserbe at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 28, 2016 01:25 ET (05:25 GMT)

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