French lender BNP Paribas reported a worse than expected net profit for its fourth quarter of 2017, falling 1.1 percent to 1.43 billion euros ($1.77 billion) and missing market expectations.
Here are the highlights:
- The bank reported full-year pre-tax profit of 11.3 billion euros ($13.97 billion), up 0.9 percent from 11.2 billion euros in 2016.
- The group's operating income totaled 10.3 billion euros, down 4.3 percent from 10.7 billion euros in 2016.
- Net profit attributable to shareholders was 7.76 billion euros, up 0.7 percent compared to 2016.
Despite the dip in the last quarter, BNP Paribas' Chief Financial Officer Lars Machenil told CNBC that the results were solid.
"If I look at BNP Paribas 2017 these are solid results, in a positive economic environment in Europe," he said.
"If I look at the bottom line it clocked in at 7.8 billion euros, up 4 percent, and a dividend of 3.02 euro per share," he said, adding that the bank had made a good start on its 2020 transformation plan. The bank's 2020 business development plan broadly aims to update the bank's operational model and improve operating efficiency and accelerate digitalization.
"We believe and we expect that our target of 10 percent target of return on equity (ROE) will be beaten by 2020," he said.
The bank said full-year pre-tax profit was up 13.4 percent for its operating divisions unit, up 4.7 percent at its domestic markets unit, rose 18.2 percent at its international financial services group and up 14.6 percent at the corporate and institutional banking (CIB) division. The bank reported a 27 percent fall in fixed income and currencies (FIC) trading revenue in its latest quarter of 2017, however.
Asked whether he expected things to change, Machenil said it was "a bit to early" to tell.
"We're there to accompany our clients and we'll have to see if demand picks up, if the market picks up," he said.
