As a leader in banking and financial services in Europe, BNP Paribas is strong, resilient and profitable and is a major player in financing the economy, the transformations under way, and in supporting Europe’s sovereignty in strategic sectors. Our very robust 2024 results exceeded our targets, and we are committed to an ambitious 2025-2026 trajectory based on the strength of our diversified and integrated model, our financial solidity, the quality of our client portfolio, the stability of our governance and the expertise of our teams.
We use these resources to back the economy and help companies scale up. Present in 64 countries, we provide support for our clients, corporate and institutional, to expand internationally, to finance projects and to identify the best investment opportunities. We help strengthen European sovereignty by providing support for corporate clients in several strategic sectors. Notably, we contribute to financing defence companies, mainly in NATO countries, and principally in Europe. This support for large groups, mid-caps and SMEs in the sector takes various forms: loans, guarantees, bond issues, export financing, asset management and direct equity investments.
We are also well positioned to reinforce Europe’s sovereignty in the strategic field of payments. BNP Paribas is one of the historical players in the Wero account-to-account digital payment service the sovereign solution designed by and for Europeans as part of the European Payments Initiative (EPI).
We back European champions in the race for innovation by engaging in developing artificial intelligence (AI). To ensure that Europe is not left behind in the AI market, we must support investment in projects and infrastructure. We furthermore actively seek to develop use cases, notably through our partnership with Mistral AI, to meet the challenges faced by corporate clients, such as improving the customer experience, generating additional revenues, optimising costs and reinforcing risk management.
Financing the ecological transition is my next focus. While the effects of climate change and the collapse of biodiversity are increasingly tangible, as dramatically illustrated by the natural disasters in Spain, Mayotte and Réunion, we must work alongside our corporate, institutional and individual clients to pursue the efforts needed to make our economies more sustainable. We are in line with our Sustainability trajectory, particularly in terms of supporting energy companies in their low-carbon projects.
To conclude, it should be recalled that to meet the immense funding needs of these transformations, it is essential to create the unified European capital market that we have long been calling for. This is one of the conditions for restoring Europe’s competitiveness.
At BNP Paribas, we are playing our full part in these changes by closely involving our stakeholders - clients, partners, investors, shareholders and employees - in giving impetus to all those who act for a better future.
MESSAGE WRITTEN ON 18 MARCH 2025.
