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Revenues, Earnings Rise At BNP Paribas' Investment Solutions Arm
Tom Burroughes
7 November 2012
The investment solutions arm of France’s BNP Paribas, the segment
that includes wealth management functions, posted pre-tax income of €501
million ($644.7 million) in the third quarter of this year, a surge of 98 per
cent on the same three months of last year. The Paris-listed banking group’s investment solutions
business logged revenues of €1.516 billion, a 3.7 per cent increase
year-on-year, it said today in a statement. Within the “wealth and asset management” group, revenues
were €682 million, down from €714 million in the same period a year ago; pre-tax
income was €180 million, compared with €183 million. “Net asset inflows were positive in all the business units
in the first nine months of the year, except for asset management: good asset
inflows in wealth management, in particular in the domestic markets and in
Asia; good contributions from insurance, especially in Asia (Taiwan, South
Korea) and from personal investors, especially in Germany,” it said. Investment solutions’ assets under management rose by 5.2 per cent compared to 31 December 2011 and 4.1 per cent compared to 30 September 2011, to €886 billion (€842 billion as at 31 December 2011), driven primarily by a positive performance effect (good performance of the equity markets). Net asset inflows for the first nine months of the year totalled €0.9 billion and were penalised by a client’s (fund manager) decision in the third quarter to in-source a distribution contract. Excluding this effect, net asset inflows were +€12.2 billion for the first nine months of the year. As at 30 September, the assets under management at the
investment solutions’ arm were divided as follows: asset management: €408
billion; wealth management: €265 billion; insurance: €165 billion; personal investors:
€35 billion; real estate services: €13 billion. For the entire business, BNP Paribas said its group revenue
in the third quarter was €9.693 billion, down from €10.032 billion in the same
period last year. “BNP Paribas delivered solid performances this quarter,
rebounding compared to the third quarter 2011, which was impacted by the
sovereign debt crisis,” the firm said. “The group’s adaptation plan in response to new regulations
is now completed, ahead of the disclosed schedule: CIB reduced its risk-weighted assets by €45 billion and the group’s
common equity Tier 1 ratio was increased by 100 basis points as announced. The
fully loaded (1) Basel 3 common equity Tier 1 ratio was 9.5 per cent as at 30
September 2012 and the 9 per cent target was therefore surpassed,” the bank
said. Explaining the 3.4 per cent fall in revenues across the
entire banking empire, BNP Paribas said figures included two one-off
significant revenue items for a total of -€347 million: an own credit
adjustment (-€774 million) and an exceptional amortisation of the fair value
adjustment of part of Fortis’ banking book due to early redemptions (+€427
million).