BNP Paribas, France's biggest listed bank, reported a 20 percent rise in second-quarter net profit on August 01 that beat forecasts as it benefited from record earnings at its investment bank arm.
The eurozone's second-biggest bank by market capitalisation said net profit rose to 2.28 billion euros ($3.13 billion), with earnings also boosted by growth in its asset management and French retail banking divisions as well as by last year's take-over of Italian bank BNL.
Twenty analysts polled by Reuters gave an average net profit forecast of 2.06 billion euros. Gross operating profit rose 14 percent to 3.37 billion euros, while revenues rose 13 percent to 8.21 billion.