France’s banking giant BNP Paribas on Thursday reported a record quarterly loss after it recently agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and to pay an US$8.9 billion penalty for doing business with countries that the United States had imposed sanctions upon.
As part of the deal, BNP Paribas said it had set aside 5.75 billion euros, or US$7.70 billion, to cover the financial penalties doled out by the American authorities. The provisions pushed the bank into a loss for the second quarter of this year.
BNP Paribas, the largest French bank by assets, said its loss for the three months through June 30 was 4.3 billion euros, compared with a ?1.8 billion net profit for the period a year earlier.
The bank’s shares rose about 0.6 percent in morning trading in Paris on Thursday, according to Wall Street Journal.
“The group has learned lessons from these past events and is implementing a major reinforcement of its internal control,” the bank’s chief executive, Jean-Laurent Bonnafe, said in a news release.
The bank said that it had set aside a further ?200 million to meet future compliance needs related to the settlement. BNP Paribas had earmarked an additional US$1.1 billion to cover the American penalties.
Excluding one-time costs related to the American settlement, BNP Paribas said its net income for the second quarter of the year was ?1.9 billion, an increase of 23 percent.
Source : WAM News Agency for United Arab Emirates
