The BNP Paribas banking group signed an unprecedented year in 2021, according to its financial results published on Tuesday, with dynamic retail banking, financing and investment activities despite the crisis.
The largest French bank made a net profit of 9.488 billion euros in 2021, up sharply compared to 2020 (+34.3%) and 2019 (+16.1%), according to its results press release quarterly.
Read alsoBNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole in competition in Spain
“
BNP Paribas achieves a very good performance in 2021
”, judges its managing director, Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, quoted in the press release.
The first major French bank to publish its results for last year, BNP Paribas reported net banking income (NBI), equivalent to turnover for the sector, of 46.2 billion euros, or 4.4% more than in 2020 and 3.7% more than in 2019.
The results of the fourth quarter alone are however slightly down on the two previous ones: 2.3 billion in net profit against 2.5 billion the previous quarter and 2.9 billion from April to June.
They nevertheless remain nearly 45% higher than those of the last quarter of 2020.
Read alsoBNP Paribas exits retail banking in the United States
This is also without counting the fruit of the sale of its American subsidiary Bank of the West for the tidy sum of 16.3 billion dollars.
Announced on December 20, it will not be finalized until the end of this year.
in the green
The "
Domestic markets
" activity, which includes retail banking in France and in the euro zone (Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg), saw its net banking income grow by 5.2%, particularly supported by France and certain businesses such as the car leasing subsidiary Arval.
Read alsoBNP Paribas does better than before the health crisis
The banks are engaged in fierce competition in the field of mobility, particularly in the automobile segment: its competitor Société Générale, once Leaseplan has been swallowed, will however have a vehicle fleet almost three times greater.
The financing and investment businesses, for their part, recorded “
sustained growth in income
”.
The bank, which also has the Nickel bank account service, available only from tobacconists, sees this segment “
continuing its development in France with nearly 2.4 million accounts opened
” since its creation.
Read alsoThe start-up Wynd buys Symag, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas
The “
hard
” equity ratio (CET1, capital intended to deal with possible shocks) reached 12.9%, well above the regulatory minimum.
Finally, the cost of risk, that is to say the sums provisioned to deal with any unpaid debts on the loans granted, fell last year by almost 50% to fall below 3 billion euros.
2025 target
On the strength of these results, the rue d'Antin bank proposed a dividend of 3.67 euros per share, or 50% of the company's net profit.
Read alsoBNP Paribas and Jaguar Land Rover announce an exclusive partnership
This is more than last year, when the bank was required to limit it to 21% of its results by the European Central Bank, and therefore paid an ordinary dividend of 1.11 euros.
In 2019, the payment of dividends had simply been suspended.
These performances serve as the perfect launch pad for the “
Growth, Technology & Sustainability 2025
” strategic plan announced at the same time on Tuesday, which gives pride of place to sustainable finance.
The group thus aims "
to mobilize 350 billion euros by 2025 through credit activities and bond issues related to environmental and social issues, but also to reach 300 billion in responsible and sustainable investments in 2025. aligning portfolios with commitments
”.
Read alsoBNP Paribas finalizes the acquisition of the online bank Floa
BNP Paribas does not intend to stop there.
It sees itself “
ideally positioned to deliver sustainable growth
”, particularly in its even cautious scenarios of “
economic normalization
” through an increase in interest rates.
