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BNP Paribas reports 44.8% quarterly profit leap
Released on - Thursday,05 November , 2009 -13:59 00
BNP Paribas bank reported a 44.8-percent rise in net quarterly profits on Thursday, beating expectations with strong investment banking and markets performance.
The retail banking division, however, continued to suffer from a rise in bad loan provisions in the third quarter.
Net profit was 1.305 billion euros (1.94 billion dollars) compared with an expectation of 1.197 billion euros by analysts as polled by Dow Jones Newswires.
Overall group loan risk eased slightly from the figure for the second quarter, but remained high at 2.3 billion euros.
The net outcome was high compared with the equivalent figure last year when banks began to be severely hit by the repercussions of the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers.
However, it fell short of the equivalent figure two years ago of more than two billion euros.
Net banking income, a key measure of core banking business, rose by 40.0 percent, or by 14.3 percent on a comparable asset base, to 10.865 billion euros.
This included a contribution from BNP Paribas Fortis.
The investment banking arm generated nearly 60 percent of the outcome before tax in the quarter.