Retail market hits French banks’ performance

BNP Paribas is crowned France's best-performing bank for 2023, but pre-tax profits for most French banks are hit by characteristics unique to the French retail market. Anita Hawser reports.

by Anita Hawser

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It is all change at the top of France’s overall best-performing table, with BNP Paribas, the country’s second-largest bank by Tier 1 capital, wresting the crown from Société Générale (SocGen).

While SocGen has fallen to fourth spot in this year’s overall best-performing table, BNP Paribas has moved up three spots to first, outperforming its four largest peers in growth, profitability, asset quality, and return on risk.

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Anita Hawser

Anita Hawser is the Europe editor at The Banker. For the past 20 years, Anita has worked as a freelance journalist for a range of banking, finance and tech titles covering topics such as cybersecurity, financial crime, cryptocurrencies, payments, trade and supply chain finance. Before joining The Banker, Anita was Europe editor at Global Finance.

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