BNP Paribas fourth-quarter profits fall 51 per cent over Greek debt

Feb 15, 2012, 8:41 GMT

Paris - France's biggest bank BNP Paribas said Wednesday that its profits halved in the fourth quarter of 2011 as the bank's exposure to the Greek debt crisis took a toll on its bottom line.

Fourth-quarter net income fell 51 per cent compared with the same quarter in 2010 to 765 million euros (1 billion dollars).

The bank increased its provision for Greek debt in the fourth quarter by 567 million euros, extending it to 75 per cent of all its Greek debt holdings.

Altogether BNP wrote down 3.454 billion euros in Greek debt last year, as part of an agreement by European banks to share in the cost of a second Greek rescue package.

The writedown, and losses on sales of European government bonds, were the main factors behind a 22 per cent drop in net profits to 6.05 billion euros in 2011.

For BNP, the result was a 'good performance', given the 'exceptional environment,' the bank said.