FRANCE - Financial group BNP Paribas reported a 14% growth in assets under management bringing the figure up to €491.5bn.

The group saw a substantial net asset inflow of €36.9bn with the asset management business accounting for €19.5bn. In 2005, the net inflow was €34.1bn.

In total 28% of BNP Paribas' assets under management come from corporate and institutional clients with the majority (61%) coming from individuals.

Assets under custody rose 18.2% to €3.6trn.

Pre-tax income for the asset management and services business was €1.3bn an increase of over 26%.

Asset management revenues of €732m were up 25.2%, real estate services revenues of €515m were up 18.7%, and security services revenues of €899m were up 24%.

BNP stated that it will be looking at strengthening its existing positions in Europe and accelerate growth in emerging countries in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

"Asset Management Services thus plans to continue to generate organic revenue growth above 10%," the company stated.

Net Banking income for 2006 the whole group was €27.9bn, up almost 28%.

Elsewhere, Credit Suisse saw its asset management business halve its profit to CHF508m (€312.6m) before tax.

It said that the decline was due to "lower private equity and other investment-related gains, which are cyclical in nature, and higher operating expenses, partly due to the realignment of the business in 2006".

Total operating expenses rose 31% in 2006, including CHF225m of realignment costs.

Assets under management totalled CHF670bn at year-end 2006, a 14% increase. The asset management business reported CHF50.8bn of net new assets in 2006 including a net outflow of almost CHF3bn in the fourth quarter.

Total assets under management for Credit Suisse were CHF1.5trn at year-end 2006, an increase of 13% from the previous year.