Best bank 2025: BNP Paribas
France has weathered political and financial turbulence in 2024, after years of missing out on the interest-rate bonanza lifting southern European peers since 2022. Yet some of the country’s biggest banks are becoming even more important continental leaders across financial services.
BNP Paribas, above all, is today a European champion in terms of its financing and debt capital markets activities, as well as in areas such as securities services. At a group level, it is also a driving force behind strategically important European initiatives in areas such as payments and, most recently, generative artificial intelligence.
In 2024, the bank more than met its financial targets in terms of revenues, efficiency, cost of risk and profit. Revenues rose by 4.1% over 2023, versus an objective of 2%. Cost of risk was only 33 basis points, and net income rose to €11.7 billion.
“It shows that our strategy is paying off, and we’re on a growth trajectory,” chief financial officer Lars Machenil tells Euromoney, commenting on the business’s improved efficiency. “Revenues are rising, costs are under control leading to positive jaws, and cost of risk is low. We have also reconfirmed our commitment to pay 60% of earnings to shareholders over the next two years.”
Revenues rose healthily last year in BNP Paribas’s asset gathering businesses. Growth in revenues was even stronger in its corporate and institutional division, comprising BNP global banking, markets and securities services.
Its scale in corporate and institutional banking today is the result of organic growth, as well as acquisitions earlier this decade, such as the buyout of equities joint venture Exane and the transfer of Deutsche Bank’s prime finance and electronic equities business.
Those deals are now paying off. The bank is moving further ahead, notably in asset and wealth management, and insurance.
In September 2024, BNP bolstered its wealth management business on the continent via the acquisition of HSBC’s private banking business in Germany. Separately, it laid the ground for a life insurance acquisition and partnership with ABN Amro’s French wealth subsidiary Neuflize OBC.
Then in December 2024 came the agreement to acquire the asset management business of French insurer AXA.
This €5.1 billion purchase, made via its insurance subsidiary Cardif, aims to consolidate the group’s position among top-tier European asset managers, managing €1.5 trillion of assets, while adding expertise in areas such as private markets. It should strengthen a vital stream of capital-light earnings and diversification, notably thanks to distribution in its home market.
“We are investing in insurance, asset and wealth management in Europe and Asia, most notably through acquisitions made over the past two years,” says Renaud Dumora, deputy chief operating officer in charge of the division.
“Asset gathering businesses are attractive because of demographics, the growth of wealth and the increase of the middle class in some emerging countries. They are also capital light, profitable and less risky than some other banking activities. The need for retirement products is also increasing. Organic growth is already moving quite fast – and that’s the best timing to accelerate and acquire.”
Best investment bank 2025: BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas impressed throughout the review period with its involvement in a series of flagship mandates that touched every pillar of French investment banking.
In M&A, the bank was at the centre of some of France’s biggest transactions. It steered Brookfield’s planned €9 billion take-private of renewables champion Neoen, underscoring its grip on energy transition deals. In healthcare it paired advice with financing and hedging for Roquette’s $2.8 billion purchase of IFF Pharma Solutions, and guided Sanofi through the €16 billion sale of half of its consumer health arm to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in the largest leveraged buyout in Europe since 2020 and the biggest ever in France.
Industrial know-how was on display in the Geely-Renault-Aramco powertrain carve-out, and in transport the bank advised CMA CGM’s €5 billion acquisition of Bolloré Logistics, the ship owner’s largest deal to date. A complex three-way spin-off of Vivendi’s media assets, with BNP Paribas leading or co-leading listings in London, Amsterdam and Paris, showed equal dexterity in capital markets-driven restructuring.
In debt capital markets the bank reopened French corporate funding windows with EDF’s €3 billion multi-tranche green bond, the first issue entirely aligned to nuclear, hydro and renewables assets. In leveraged finance it kept momentum for domestic credits, running the book on Iliad’s €1.3 billion senior secured notes and Mediawan’s €500 million debut term loan. Large-scale infrastructure refinancings, including €5.8 billion for XpFibre, €2.6 billion for Fécamp Offshore Wind and €1.7 billion for district heat provider Idex, demonstrated balance sheet capacity behind the advisory ability.
In equity capital markets, 14% of the bank’s 2024 Europe, Middle East and Africa deal count was originated in France, headlined by the Vivendi spin-off and the €2.1 billion separation of games publisher Asmodee. A €2.5 billion IPO of the Orange Spain-MasMóvil joint venture sits in the 2025 pipeline, demonstrating continued deal flow anchored in French corporate ambition.
Best investment bank for DCM 2025: HSBC
HSBC continued to act as a leading French debt capital markets partner in the review period, dominating the local agency private placement arena and maintaining a top-tier position with French financial issuers.
A market-leading share in private placements for local public agencies combined with a sustained top five ranking across currencies and structures for bank and insurance clients underlines the depth of its franchise. Record issuance volumes for French financial names highlight the bank’s ability to capture windows and deliver consistent funding solutions throughout volatile market conditions.
Recent transactions illustrate the platform’s skill in broadening currency access for French borrowers. HSBC was sole manager on EDF’s sterling return – the first French corporate public bond in that market in well over a decade – and replicated this cross-border reach for Banque de France. In dollars, the bank guided TotalEnergies through a high-profile SEC-registered issue and arranged Sanofi’s successful re-entry to the 144A arena, enabling both companies to diversify their investor bases.
Innovation and sustainability also marked HSBC’s year. It structured STMicroelectronics’ landmark environmental, social and governance-linked bond, coupled with an inventive dual-tranche offering for Alstom that met distinct tenor and investor-type objectives in a single transaction. Tailored rate-linked notes and unrated private placements for Covivio Hotels and other mid-caps highlighted the bank’s growing role in bespoke, higher yield solutions.
HSBC’s leadership remained evident in the sovereign, supranational and agency segment. It co-led the French Republic’s benchmark and long-dated OATs, drove a majority of agency deals for SGP and regularly featured on mandates for Unédic, CADES, Bpifrance and La Poste.
Best investment bank for ECM 2025: Citi
Citi has cemented its leadership in French equity capital markets by advising on landmark IPOs, rights issues and spin-offs that have reignited investor confidence and set new benchmarks for transaction execution.
By steering the €1.1 billion IPO of Exosens – the largest French flotation since October 2021 – the bank reaffirmed its capacity to reopen the local market for sizeable industrial-tech listings. Its use of a fixed price structure accelerated investor decision making, generated decisive bookbuild momentum and supported an upsized deal. The resulting premium valuation, secured after intensive dialogue with Janus Henderson acting as cornerstone, set a new pricing benchmark for domestic high-growth issuers.
The bank also orchestrated Planisware’s €280 million IPO through a bespoke, long-only pre-marketing programme that positioned the firm as a category leader in the expanding project economy. Early engagement with Invesco and T. Rowe Price delivered a €50 million cornerstone, while clear articulation of the software group’s recurring revenue model attracted a broad base of quality French and international accounts. Three months later the bank leveraged its market knowledge to place an €83 million accelerated secondary in Planisware, unlocking incremental long-term demand and securing an anchor order that broadened the shareholder register without destabilising the share price.
The strength of Citi’s distribution platform was equally visible in Alstom’s €1 billion rights issue, the largest in France for two years. Daily relay of investor feedback to management helped shape messaging around deleveraging and working capital priorities, ultimately driving subscriptions of €1.7 billion – an oversubscription rate of 174% that underlined support for the group’s turnaround.
Finally, as lead ECM adviser on Sodexo’s €4.4 billion Pluxee spin-off, the bank crafted a standalone equity story that repositioned the meal-and-benefits business as a pure-play digital issuer. Targeted pre-deal meetings converted scepticism into strong institutional backing, allowing Pluxee to list with the critical mass and liquidity expected of a new French-listed large cap.
Best digital bank 2025: BoursoBank
BoursoBank’s rampant growth continued in 2024, reaching 7.2 million clients, up by around 20% on 2023. The growth figures have put the digital-only bank – owned by Societe Generale – on the way to reach a new target of 8 million this year. It is today, by customer numbers,10 times bigger than a decade ago.
Crucially, the bank formerly known as Boursorama Banque has a deepening relationship with its customers, with around half using it as their primary bank. That is thanks to a widening product set whether in mortgages, life insurance or other products.
Ahead of a target to earn more than €300 million by 2026, that depth of relationship and a 17% reduction in the cost per client in 2024 has helped the bank remain profitable. Despite its status as a growth bank, with much lower fees than other banks, BoursoBank has managed to combine profits with increased customer satisfaction.
A 2022 referral agreement with ING as the latter exited French retail was an important step for the bank, but it has been building its own path. In 2024, it launched a private banking offer called Bourso First, offering more complex investment products and Lombard loans. It also launched business banking focused on sole traders or owner-managed companies in 2024.
“We have not only recorded continuous growth in customer numbers,” says Benoit Grisoni, BoursoBank’s chief executive. “We are also steadily improving and enlarging our capabilities and products: from our origins as an online broker, to savings, banking, payments, and more.
According to Grisoni, the bank’s average fees for operating a current account is less than €10 a year, compared to as much as €250 for most traditional banks in France – although BoursoBank also makes commissions from its status as one of the country’s most popular online brokers.
Grisoni notes, too, the extent to which BoursoBank’s customers grow their balances with the bank over time.
That’s partly because they tend to be young – with an average age of 35 – so more likely to see an increase in earnings and savings rates over time, and partly because of a high and rising retention rate. Average outstanding balances in savings were up by 15.5% to €64 billion at end-2024, including €39 billion in deposits, extraordinarily high for a digital bank active only in one country. Assets under management also grew by €9.1 billion over the year, reaching €82 billion.
The bank’s customers also tend to take more products with the bank the longer they stay with it, according to Grisoni.
“Typically, our customers double their outstanding balances with us between year one and year three, and triple it between year one and year five,” he says.
“We see a kind of S-curve of in the number of products our customers take between the day one, with current accounts and debit cards, then perhaps a Livret A account, then life insurance, and then a trading account.” For BoursoBank, the only way is up.
Best bank for ESG 2025: Societe Generale
Societe Generale demonstrates clear environmental, social and governance leadership in France, advancing renewable energy finance, enabling home energy renovations, fostering sustainable agriculture, and embedding environmental and social responsibility throughout its operations and workforce.
Societe Generale’s French ESG franchise has advanced quickly through landmark financings. In July 2024, the bank led a €2.6 billion project loan for the 497-megawatt Fécamp offshore wind farm, adding large-scale renewable capacity to the national grid. Two months earlier it arranged a €1.3 billion dark-green loan and acted as lead adviser for Verkor’s first 16-gigawatt hour battery gigafactory in Dunkirk, vital for Europe’s electric-vehicle supply chain.
Advisory work is also under way on GravitHy, the country’s first hydrogen-based green-iron plant, and on the €6.1 billion acquisition of a majority stake in Neoen by Brookfield Asset Management, positioning the bank at the centre of France’s low-carbon industrial build-out.
Beyond headline deals, Societe Generale is helping households cut emissions at scale. Through the FIDEO-BRE consortium selected by ADEME, it is building one-stop shops that coordinate every step of home-energy renovation and channel blended finance to owners.
Agriculture and nature have also been important areas for the bank. A 2024 partnership with agri-cooperative In Vivo supports the nationwide rollout of agro-ecological practices aimed at boosting yields while regenerating soils and ecosystem services.
For commodity traders based in France the bank has embedded biodiversity-linked key performance indicators that track the share of deforestation-free soy and corn, improving supply chain transparency.
In house, Societe Generale has already eliminated single-use plastics from catering in its French headquarters and cut domestic operational greenhouse-gas emissions by 36% versus 2019. Water use has fallen by 0.4 million cubic metres, while 41,000 employees – 38% of the global workforce – have completed ESG training modules developed in Paris.
The creation of an Independent Scientific Council, an initiative launched to enrich the group’s analysis of ESG topics, underlined the bank’s commitment to a science-based strategy.
Best bank for large corporates 2025: HSBC
HSBC’s Paris-based corporate banking franchise distinguishes itself through consistent leadership on marquee deals, pioneering sustainable and export financing, dominant equity-linked execution and acclaimed digitally driven transaction services.
The bank’s leveraged and acquisition finance specialists appeared on almost every marquee domestic transaction, arranging bridge and revolving facilities for household-name groups across luxury goods, media and industrials. This highlights the bank’s ability to mobilise balance sheet and advisory firepower quickly while orchestrating international lending consortia.
Sustainable finance now permeates the franchise. HSBC structures sustainability-linked loans for companies ranging from high-growth tech firms to global healthcare leaders and is recognised as being among the most active green loan arrangers in Europe.
In export finance, a recent water infrastructure facility in Angola, led and largely financed by the Paris team, connects French industrial expertise with vital projects in emerging markets and illustrates the bank’s social and environmental reach.
Complementing its loan strength, HSBC dominates the French equity-linked arena. Acting as joint global coordinator on Schneider Electric’s record-setting convertible issue, the team delivered an oversubscribed book, neutralised dilution on an earlier bond and repriced conversion terms above all-time highs. The deal confirms the bank’s capacity to blend capital markets creativity with disciplined balance sheet support.
HSBC’s franchise is anchored by an award-winning transaction banking platform. A Paris hub, plugged into a network spanning more than 60 countries, now processes most trade flows digitally and is preparing to launch the next-generation HSBC Trade Solutions system. Clients also benefit from market leading cash management tools including HSBCnet, virtual cards and the SmartServe digital onboarding engine.
Best bank for sustainable finance 2025: Crédit Agricole Group
Crédit Agricole consolidated its longstanding leadership in French sustainable finance in 2024 through a series of technical advances and high-profile transactions.
Its new sustainability-linked loan bonds framework is the first in the market to publish full eligibility criteria, anchored by a pioneering environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance index. By financing and refinancing portfolios of sustainability-linked loans that carry 1.5°C or well-below 2 °C decarbonisation trajectories, the framework sets a transparency benchmark for syndicated lending.
External validation from ISS-Corporate confirms that the selected key performance indicators and sustainability performance targets are both material and ambitious, boosting investor confidence and widening access to climate-aligned capital for French borrowers.
Capitalising on its 15-year expertise in sustainable finance, the bank continued to secure important mandates with flagship domestic clients. Both Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations and EDF renewed long-term relationships – seven and 11 years respectively – by again choosing Crédit Agricole CIB to arrange their sustainable financing in 2024. In the telecoms sector, Orange appointed the bank as sole ESG structuring bank to overhaul its sustainability financing framework, underscoring Crédit Agricole’s role at the heart of large French syndicated loan transactions.
Beyond deal execution, the bank intensified its 2024 event programme to deepen dialogue among market participants and continued to shape industry standards through executive roles at ICMA and the Loan Market Association, as well as the Climate and Sustainable Finance Commission of the French regulator, AMF.
Best bank for independent advisory 2025: Rothschild & Co
Rothschild & Co stood out as France’s foremost independent advisory bank, combining the firm’s large on-the-ground team with a decade-long record of landmark transactions.
In retail Rothschild & Co guided Casino through an €8.1 billion debt-to-equity swap and a €1.2 billion capital injection, in France’s largest recent restructuring, coordinating 17 creditor classes and designing an elevation mechanism that unlocked €1.2 billion of new operating lines. Similar ingenuity supported technology group Atos, where the firm engineered a €4.9 billion debt conversion and secured €1.75 billion of fresh financing, pushing all maturities beyond 2029 and restoring growth capacity.
The firm’s capital markets practice then reignited domestic equity issuance. Rothschild & Co reopened the French IPO window with Planisware’s €278 million listing on Euronext Paris, the exchange’s largest flotation in three years, and structured Clariane’s €328 million rights issue, the centrepiece of a four-part €1.5 billion balance sheet reinforcement delivered in volatile conditions.
Rothschild & Co’s strategic M&A advice was equally impressive. The firm shepherded Sanofi through a dual-track carve-out of consumer health arm Opella, agreeing a partnership with Clayton, Dubilier & Rice that values the business at around €16 billion and stands among Europe’s biggest private equity deals of 2025.
The firm’s cross-border reach was evident in Advent’s $1.1 billion sale of Cobham Aerospace Communications to Thales, executed under a compressed timetable through joint Paris-London efforts, proving how France’s largest advisory team combines local insight with global execution.
