(by Julia Jenson)

French bank BNP Paribas SA on Thursday declared its earnings for the third quarter beating analysts’ expectations with a 13.5% surge in net profit that grew to €1.101 billion, ahead of the forecasts of around €1 billion, compared to the € 970million posted for the same period last year.

A rise in profit was helped by the decrease in provisions for bad loans and tight cost controls. For this period the bank set aside €116 million in loss provisions, less than half of € 350 million provided in the third quarter of 2003.

Revenue rose 3.4 percent to € 4.53 billion but missed most analysts’ forecasts. The bank reported deteriorating environment due to slow growth in Europe and volatile equity markets. The surge in oil prices also contributed to the decline. As a result, the revenue in the corporate investment banking division slid 4.5% to € 1.33 billion. Most of the increase came from the bank’s domestic and international retail banking networks.