BNP Paribas, which in 2009 expanded by taking over Fortis activities in countries such as Belgium and Luxembourg, in 2012 had 6.55 billion euros in annual net income, an 8.3 percent increase from a year earlier. Societe Generale’s full-year profit slumped 68 percent to 774 million euros while Credit Agricole had a record 6.47 billion-euro annual loss, partly hurt by the sale of its unprofitable Greek unit Emporiki Bank.
Lagging BNP
“SocGen and Credit Agricole are lagging BNP,” said Jacques-Pascal Porta, who helps manage about 600 million euros at Ofi Gestion Privee in Paris, including BNP and Societe Generale. “BNP’s image has been less shaken during the financial crisis, and that’s fundamental in wealth management.”
Societe Generale increased wealth-management assets 1.7 percent to 86.1 billion euros in 2012, even as France’s second- largest bank retreated from North America with the sale of a minority stake in U.S. Rockefeller Financial Services Inc. and its shares in Canadian Wealth Management Group Inc.
“2012 was as year of consolidation,” Jean-Francois Mazaud, head of private banking at Societe Generale, said in an e-mailed statement. “The wealth-management sector has had to confront significant changes since the start of the financial crisis.”
Strong Performance
Before Europe’s sovereign debt crisis deepened, Societe Generale Private Bank’s former CEO had set a goal to reach 150 billion euros of assets by 2015.
The bank is targeting growth in Asia and Mazaud said the second half of last year showed a “clear turnaround” after a challenging 2011.
Societe Generale’s private-banking revenue and cost-to- income ratio improved in the fourth quarter and Mazaud expects the unit to deliver “strong performance” in 2013.
“Clients are now beginning to return to higher-yield solutions,” he said.