BNP Paribas: More than meets the eye

What exactly is BNP Paribas? 

Is it one of the last men standing in pan-European commercial banking? 

Is it parochial in outlook or more global than you might think? 

Is it a lender of first resort and strategic adviser as afterthought? 

Or, after years of delivering on a conservative business model, is it now at an inflection point, making a leap into new territory?

It might just be all of these things. The bank has a reputation for being staid, but there are signs that it is shaking itself up, albeit modestly and without ceremony, as is the style of long-serving chief executive Jean-Laurent Bonnafé.