Awwal 14, 1432 H/Feb 17, 2011, SPA -- French banking giant BNP Paribas on Thursday announced record profits of 7.82 billion euros for 2010, according to dpa. BNP's profits were up by 34.5 per cent on the previous year as France emerged from recession and the banking group began to reap the fruits of its 2009 takeover of Belgian bank Fortis. The 2010 figure is an improvement on the company's previous best of 7.82 billion euros in 2009 and sees BNP closing in on Europe's biggest banking group, Spain's Santander. Santander's net profits for 2010 fell 8.5 per cent to 8.18 billion euros, after the bank was forced to increase its provision for bad debts. BNP's risk-related costs were greatly reduced in 2010, BNP said. The French economy grew by 1.5 per cent in 2010.
