How has the Group mobilised to support its customers, the economy, and meet the most pressing needs of society?
Jean-Laurent Bonnafé: Since the beginning of the health crisis, BNP Paribas has supported all economic players, to meet their immediate needs and support them over the long term. We have thus granted loans to our individual customers, granted the deferral of repayment schedules for outstanding loans, set up an offer for customers in vulnerable situations and proposed a zero-interest loan offer for students and apprentices. We have also been very present alongside our professional and corporate customers, who very quickly found themselves faced with challenges to keep their business activity sometimes leading to financing issues. In this context, we have supported their cash flow requirements via our loan offers and the distribution of more than 120,000 loans guaranteed by the State (in particular in France, Italy and the United States); we have also granted the deferral of loan repayments and made equity investments in French SMEs and middlemarket companies. We also plan to double our investments in French SMEs, bringing them to 4 billion euros by 2024. Overall, the volume of our outstanding loans increased by 33 billion euros in 2020 and the Group raised 396 billion euros in financing for its customers in the syndicated credit, bond and equity markets. Through this massive support for the economy, we have consolidated our position as a preferred partner for companies in Europe.
Our support during the crisis also focused more broadly on society: as part of a vast aid plan of nearly 60 million euros deployed with our non-profit partners in around thirty countries, we have supported the healthcare sector in the form of donations to hospitals and various scientific research programmes, and supported our employees who have personally committed to volunteer work. Likewise, we have set up philanthropy and solidarity actions for those most vulnerable to the crisis that aim, in particular, to maintain access to education for young people, support culture and help associations specialised in food aid and the provision of healthcare.
The Group’s strategic plan for 2017-2020 has come to an end. What conclusions do you draw?
Jean-Laurent Bonnafé: This plan has enabled us to successfully conduct the Group’s digital transformation and accelerate the projects under way to better meet the new needs and uses of our customers and our employees. Thanks to this momentum, we have been able to streamline and optimise customer journeys and design new offers that go well beyond simple banking services. With this in mind, we have largely mobilised the Group’s energies in all our business lines: retail banking offers a seamless digital experience and Nickel, which has passed the two million accounts mark in April 2021, is as easily accessible online as it is at tobacconists; our corporate customers also benefit from digital solutions to help them manage their businesses; finally, we rely on artificial intelligence for example, in our market and retail activities to continue to best serve our clients. These advances illustrate our desire to bring the best of digital and human together to offer a comprehensive range of services and solutions that combine fluidity and autonomy, as well as personalised advice and support. The proven effectiveness of our digital transformation has also been a significant asset in ensuring the continuity of our activities from the very first hours of the pandemic. Faced with the major social and environmental challenges of our time, the desire to accelerate sustainable finance and make it one of the spearheads of the development of our business activities was also at the heart of our priorities for the 2017-2020 plan. In addition to the exclusion from our financing portfolio of any new company focused on oil and shale gas, and gradually of those active in thermal coal(1), we have integrated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria into all our operational processes. We have also developed financing and investment instruments across all our business lines, which today place the Group among the world leaders in sustainable finance. At the end of 2020, BNP Paribas was positioned as No. 1 worldwide for the issuing of sustainable bonds, No. 2 worldwide(2) for the issue of green bonds and No. 2 in EMEA(3) for the financing of renewable energy projects. These significant advances, coupled with the Group’s financial strength, enable us to look to the future with confidence.