The Corporate and Institutional Bank (CIB) weighed on BNP Paribas' overall results, with revenue dropping 7.5 percent to 10.8 billion euros. The fall was even more stark in the fixed income, currencies and commodities segment, where revenues plunged by 21.2 percent, with the bank blaming continued ultra-low interest rates in Europe and poor performance in foreign currency exchange, in particular in emerging markets.
The results forced BNP Paribas to revise down its targets. It now expects revenue growth of 1.5 percent per year instead of 2.5 percent previously. Return on equity of 9.5 percent is now being targeted instead of 10 percent. BNP said it was stepping up efforts to reach those targets by seeking to achieve an additional 600 million euros in recurrent cost savings by 2020, taking the total target to 3.3 billion euros. It said recurrent cost savings of nearly 1.2 billion had already been achieved in a 2016-2020 programme, in line with targets.