The Paris-headquartered lender said its operating costs rose to €7.986 billion in Q2.

The group said wealth management and asset management enjoyed a "very good quarter," due to higher fees, a high level of transactional activity and solid deposit revenues.

Pre-tax income at wealth management rose "sharply," as a result of continuous transactional activity, higher recurring fees, and solid deposit revenues, reflecting high client engagement in a volatile market environment, it said.

Since the start of this year, shares have risen around 34.4 per cent.

The wealth management results are notable as a gauge of how banks capture growth from rising private wealth, for example in fast-growing Asia-Pacific. BNP Paribas' acquisition of AXA Investment Managers in July last year expanded its fee-earning asset base.

The wealth business sits within the "investment and protection services" (IPS) division. Assets under management stood at €2.59 trillion, a 6 per cent rise from the end of 2025 and a surge of 85.2 per cent from end-June 2025, boosted by the impact of consolidating AXA IM following the acquisition. The rise in AuM since the end of last year was driven by €36.3 billion of net inflows, rising markets and a positive foreign exchange effect (contributing +€18.9 billion). Wealth management accounted for 21 per cent of the AuM total, or €543.4 billion.

BNP Paribas said its Common Equity Tier 1 ratio stood at 13.0 per cent as of 30 June 2026, up by 20 basis points compared with 31 March 2026 and above regulatory requirements of 10.43 per cent.

Further to the bank's announcement of 4 February regarding the introduction of an interim dividend, effective from 2025, its board said today that it had decided on a cash payment of an interim dividend equal to half of the consolidated net income per share for the first half of 2026 (€6.45), hence €3.23 per share.

Looking ahead, BNP Paribas said it expects to achieve a return on tangible equity of 12 per cent this year, rising above 13 per cent by 2028; it projects a cost/income ratio of around 60 per cent this year, declining to under 56 per cent in 2028.

(The main picture shows the bank's offices in Singapore.)