The US-based group, part of France's BNP Paribas, reported stronger results for the second quarter and first half of this year.

Bank of The West, aka BancWest, the US group that is part of Paris-listed BNP Paribas and provides private banking among its offerings, has reported a 3.7 per cent year-on-year rise in revenues for the first six months of the year, at €1.414 billion ($1.651 billion).

After allocating one-third of US Private Banking’s net income to the BNP Paribas wealth management business, BancWest posted €394 million in pre-tax income, up by 16.3 per cent from a year before, it said today. In Q2, BancWest posted €232 million in pre-tax income, up 22.1 per cent.

Bank of The West has flagged strong hiring ambitions for the US as it opened new offices in New York earlier this year.

The French parent group said pre-tax income at its wealth and asset management arm stood at ($241 million) in the three months to the end of June this year, down from €226 million a year earlier, but gained from €187 million in the previous quarter. Wealth and asset management revenues in Q2 were €834 million, up from €760 million a year ago. 

Operating expenses totalled €639 million, up 12.8 per cent from the second quarter of 2017; they also rose 10.9 per cent excluding specific transformation projects at asset management and costs related to the acquisition of Strutt & Parker at Real Estate Services. 

In the first six months of this year, wealth and asset management’s revenues of €1.630 billion rose by 6.3 per cent compared to the first half 2017.

Assets under management reached €1.060 trillion as at June 30, 2018 (+2.7 per cent compared to 30 June 2017), and up 0.9 per cent compared to December 31, 2017 with a good level of net asset inflows, at €13.4 billion, with strong net asset inflows at wealth management in particular in Asia, France and Italy.

As at 30 June 2018, assets under management broke down as follows: asset management (€419 billion), wealth management (€373 billion), insurance (€240 billion) and real estate services (€29 billion).

Across the banking and financial services group as a whole, revenues totalled €11.206 billion, up by 2.5 per cent compared to the second quarter 2017 which included the one-off impact of -€200 million in Own Credit Adjustment (OCA) and own credit risk included in derivatives (DVA) as well as +€85 million in capital gains from the sale of Euronext shares. Operating costs rose 4.2 per cent in the quarter from a year earlier.

Pre-tax income of €3.453 billion (€3.461 million in the second quarter 2017), fell 0.2 per cent.