Bond Market News

BNP Paribas reported first-quarter net income of €1.8bn ($2.18bn), up 38% YoY. Its investment banking division reported strong revenue growth, up 25% YoY while its FICC revenues dropped 16%. “It’s a quarter where basically all lights are green”, CFO Lars Machenil said. BNP’s CET1 ratio was at 12.8% unchanged from end-2020. The bank said that their cost of risk improved 60% to €896mn ($1.08bn) with a write-back of €7mn ($8.4mn) as compared to a €62mn ($75mn) provision in 1Q2020. The French lender added that impairments of Stage 3 non-performing loans were lower than 1Q2020 and offset by write-backs on performing loans (Stages 1 and 2).

BBVA reported booked a net profit of €1.21bn ($1.47bn) in the first quarter as compared to a loss of €1.79bn ($2.3bn) in the same quarter a year ago. The bank said that profits were driven by strong recurring revenue and lower impairments and provisions. Impairments and provisions dropped significantly below last year’s levels of €2.1bn ($2.5bn) to €923mn ($1.1bn). The bank’s NPL ratio stood at 4.3%, up 30bp YoY and their CET1 ratio was at 11.88% vs 11.73% end-2020.

Banco Sabadell reported net profits of €73mn ($88mn) with its British unit TSB also contributing by returning to profits in the first quarter. Net interest income amounted to €833mn ($1bn), down 5.8% YoY while core banking revenues reduced 4.8% to €1.18bn ($1.4bn). In TSB, lending was up by 14.5% YoY with net profits of €10mn ($12mn) due to both cost savings from the restructuring plan and improved revenues. The Group’s NPL ratio was 3.7% while CET1 ratio was stable at 12.4% vs. end-2020.