The wealth and asset management side of the French bank posted some mixed figures for Q4, 2020. On the positive side, it said that inflows into the Asian and European businesses were strong.

BNP Paribas’ wealth and asset management business reported €233 million ($278.9 million) in pre-tax income for the fourth quarter of 2020, rising from €216 million a year earlier, while operating income at €159 million (vs €191 million) fell over the period.

Last Friday, the French bank reported a drop in revenues at the wealth and asset management arm, slipping to €826 million from €957 million. Costs narrowed slightly to €669 million from €760 million. 

Assets under management came to €1.165 trillion at the end of December 2020, rising by 3.8 per cent on a year before, helped by €54.9 billion of net inflow and a rebound in financial markets last year, but offset somewhat by negative foreign exchange movements, BNP Paribas said in a statement on Friday.

There were particularly strong net asset inflows in Asia and Germany, the bank said.

Wealth and asset management revenues (€2.982 million) fell by 10.2 per cent on the year.

The impact on net interest income of the low-interest-rate environment was partly offset by the increase in financial fees at wealth management; the mid-year fall in the markets dragged down asset management fees in spite of strong asset inflows and the late year recovery in market prices. 

Across the whole of BNP Paribas, the bank took a hit to its net income, falling by 13.5 per cent in 2020 to €7.067 billion. The cost of risk, at €5.72 billion, rose by €2.514 billion from a year ago. Banks have had to increase provisioning for bad loans in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As at 31 December 2020, the common equity Tier 1 ratio - a global measure of a bank’s capital strength - stood at 12.8 per cent, up by 70 basis points compared with a year before.