BNP Paribas SA profit dips 56%

Suffering from the financial crisis, France's largest bank BNP Paribas SA today said its net income has declined by 55.55 per cent to euro 901 million in the third quarter of this year.

The bank had a net income of euro 2,027 million in the same quarter last year, BNP Paribas SA said in a statement.

"Direct impact of the financial crisis was significantly greater than in previous quarters. The impact on revenues was a loss of euro 507 million compared to negative euro 203 million in the third quarter a year earlier," it said.

Revenues declined to euro 7,614 million for the quarter under review, from euro 7,690 million for the same quarter previous year.

For the nine-month ended September 30, BNP Paribas SA posted a net income of euro 4,387 million, 35.63 per cent down from euro 6,816 million in the same period last year.

"The deepening of the financial crisis weighed heavily on profitability of the financial services industry during the third quarter. Thanks to BNP Paribas' commercial drive and greater attractiveness across all its business units, the group posted profits in each division," BNP Paribas' Chief Executive Officer Baudouin Prot said.

Earlier in October, French financial services major BNP Paribas had proposed to acquire Fortis' Indian operations by January that includes Dutch Bank ABN Amro's India asset-management business. This followed BNP Paribas agreeing to acquire Fortis' business in certain geographies globally.

Further, BNP Paribas had agreed to acquire Fortis' Belgium and Luxembourg operations as well as international franchises for an estimated euro 14.5 billion after the latter failed to survive the global financial turmoil.