which earlier in February announced a 7 percent rise in annual
profits to a record €7.82 billion ($11.9 billion) – has said that
by 2010 he wants his bank to win more than 6 million new retail
banking customers, to have 10 percent of retail sales made online
and to open 600 branches (bringing the group to 5,600).
The targets are part of a two-year plan announced by Prot on 20
February to grow BNP Paribas’s domestic and global franchise. No
mention was made of purchasing stricken French rival Société
Générale – though Prot has said he might be interested in acquiring
some of HSBC’s French business if the UK group decides to sell (on
29 February, it was reported that HSBC had begun exclusive
discussions with France’s Banque Fédérale des Banques Populaires
regarding a sale of some of its French subsidiaries, having
received an offer of €2.1 billion).
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Other goals include annual revenue growth of at least 10 percent
per year on average, and 15 percent of group revenues sourced in
emerging markets by 2010. For Cetelem, BNP Paribas’s highly
successful global consumer finance arm (outstandings grew 17.4
percent year-on-year to €62.6 billion), the aim is to develop its
direct channel distribution and double Cetelem’s origination via
the internet. In Italy, where BNP Paribas owns the country’s
seventh-largest bank by loans, BNL, the plan is to roll out a
multichannel offering “unparalleled in Italy”, according to the
bank, renovate all of BNL’s 895 branches and open another 100 new
outlets. BNL’s pre-tax income for 2007 was €566 million, up 44.8
percent year-on-year.
Prot has said he would be keen to expand the BNL franchise through
acquisitions, ruling out any sale of BNL or, indeed, BNP Paribas’s
San Francisco-based US subsidiary BancWest, which suffered a 1.2
percent fall in annual revenues. BancWest – which has total assets
of $70 billion and 750 retail branches in 20 states – performed
better than expected in the midst of the US subprime crisis and
outstanding loans grew 7.5 percent compared with 2006.
Emerging markets will play an ever-greater role in BNP Paribas
business – in 2007, the group was boosted by 1.5 million new
international customers. It opened 189 branches in places such as
Turkey and Egypt and also made the first major foreign bank
acquisition in Libya – Sahara Bank. Cetelem set up in Russia and
acquired consumer lending companies in Brazil and Bulgaria
(see RBI 578).
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By GlobalDataLonger term, integration of BNP Paribas’s various ‘silos’ and
better group cross-selling will be vital, said Prot. He wants to
“share resources and expertise” as well as distribute more products
across the wider BNP Paribas empire. The process was started in
2007: BNP Paribas created a new division, Personal Finance, which
tied together Cetelem and UCB, its specialist mortgage lender.
According to the group, the unit is Europe’s largest personal
financing solutions provider with 23 million customers.
