French banks mixed in the second quarter while Spanish and Italian banks stand out

“There is a fairly clear gap between the results of European banks and French banks, lagging behind their European counterparts,” David Benamou, investment director of the banking company, told an AFP journalist. Axiom management.

Italian and Spanish banks, which have little or no regulated savings (Livret A type in France), have seen their results climb with in particular "upward revisions" of profitability forecasts "and a cost of risk (c "that is to say the sums provisioned to deal with possible unpaid debts, Editor's note) which is very low", according to Olivier Panis, analyst at the Moody's rating agency.

Spanish banking giant Santander has revised upwards its financial targets for 2024 after posting a record profit of more than 3,2 billion euros from April to June, thanks to improved margins and arrival of new customers.

BBVA, the second Spanish bank in the middle of a takeover bid for its competitor Sabadell, posted a net profit of 2,79 billion in the second quarter, higher than analysts' expectations, thanks to an increase in the granting of loans to its customers, supported by the arrival of nearly 5,6 million new customers.

Italian banks Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit also continue to post record profits. Intesa Sanpaolo is now targeting a net profit of more than 8,5 billion euros for 2024 and 2025, despite the beginning drop in interest rates, and Unicredit raising its turnover forecast for the year.

Investment banking

French banks, for their part, saw their activity driven by investment banking, while retail banking and credit continued to lag behind in the second quarter.

“Market and asset management activities are rather very buoyant. I think that in particular for banks which have a fairly developed CIB (investment and financing banking) activity, this has been the reminder rope on the results at the beginning of the year", Guillaume Larmaraud, associate at Colombus Consulting, told AFP.

Thanks to corporate and investment banking, French banking giant BNP Paribas did better than expected in the second quarter, with net profit up 20,8% to 3,4 billion euros and Société Générale published a net profit of 1,1 billion euros in the second quarter, up 23,7% year-on-year.

The Crédit Agricole banking group saw its net profit fall sharply by 18,3% to more than 2 billion euros in the second quarter year-on-year, due to an unfavorable comparison with the second quarter of 2023, which had benefited from exceptional items, but its revenues remained stable.

BPCE, for its part, announced a drop in its net profit of 17% over one year in the second quarter, to 806 million euros, penalized by an increase in sums set aside in the event of customer defaults.

The leading German bank Deutsche Bank, for its part, suffered its first net loss in four years in the second quarter (143 million euros), due to a heavy provision linked to a legal dispute and despite increasing operating results.

The exceptional provision of 1,3 billion euros, announced in April, is linked to a dispute before the German courts between the group and former shareholders of Postbank, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank.