Similarly we do are not invested for own account

ten days of the end of the year, we can say that BNP Paribas will largely be beneficiary in 2008 and will be included in the Pack of the most profitable banks in the world. This resistance is our model in which 58 of the revenues of the group come from the Bank of detail and 20 of the asset management business. Yet our major markets, as are the France and the Italy, resist better than other grace including reduced real estate risk exposure. We are therefore well positioned to be again largely beneficiaries in 2009.

Why the Group was so affected by the Madoff scandal

In this case, we could be the first to our exhibition because the scope of our potential loss is confined to our Fund of funds financing activity. This transparency may have served us as a first step but I note that we are neither the only, nor the most affected by this fraud. Thus we have never advised our clients to invest in Madoff funds. Similarly, we do are not invested for own account. On the merits, it is a fraud of importance and exceptional character, undetected by the American authorities that they only had a genuine powers of investigation.

The measures have been taken

so "the BFI recipient again."

How do you explain the heavy losses recorded in recent months in market activities

The crisis is broken down into two phases. During the first, until the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, we have been less affected than others because we were not exposed to toxic assets ("subprime", LBO loans, "driven"...). In addition, the increase in volatility and the breakdown of the cost of liquidity, albeit sensitive, remained in limited proportions. From 15 September, date of the bankruptcy of Lehman, the market broke and all market operators have suffered. In this context, BNP Paribas could not make an exception. This is the reason for the losses recorded by our bank financing and investment in October and November. Nevertheless, on eighteen months of crisis, BNP Paribas is one of the banks in the world to which the invoice is the less heavy.

And how these losses are they formed

They mainly come from derivatives and derivatives actions activities primarily. Concretely, in these activities, we respond to the needs of our customers (businesses and institutional, private banks, "hedge funds", etc.) products of coverage on the markets, interest rates and of Exchange by a supply of diverse. Such products, even if our own blankets are as complete as possible, let stand for residual risks which are supervised and monitored within strict limits. But since the fall of Lehman, the market broke to the extreme with an almost non-existent liquidity, volatility exceptional and unprecedented, aberrant values behaviour and a curve of rates which reversed. Although we have started reducing our positions prior to the bankruptcy of Lehman, these residual risks have become difficult to manage. Are these risks and the purchase of appropriate additional blankets are at the origin of these losses.

What lessons save you this time

We are engaged in a programme of adaptation of the activities of derivatives and reduction of risks whose objective is to ensure that such a level of losses can no longer breed in the future and the Bank for financing and investment return recipient. The first fruits of this action should materialize quickly. We have taken measures to adapt our activities of derivatives to new market conditions. They will offer simpler products, with a new commercial offer which will continue to meet the needs of our customers.

Is this the end of the golden age of derivatives

It is rather a mutation, a change in the way in which these trades work. They must adapt in terms of supply, of organization and personnel. We believe that, thanks to our coping strategy and continuing to focus on client activities, which were very well maintained, the BFI should maintain its competitiveness and its leading position. It is important to remember that our BFI activities continue to be among the most powerful of the world if we take the whole of the period of crisis.

"At the end of November, our stock of credit"

"had increased by 8.

The Minister of the economy Christine Lagarde has reconvened bankers week last on the financing of the economy. How are you you

We continue to strongly and we have all the means necessary to be faithful to our vocation of Bank in the real economy based on the "business model" of BNP Paribas, a large banking group diversified in the service of all of its customers. During the boom years, we have invested in our client device and our network of agencies. Indeed, we should gain around 200,000 customers this year in France. The credit is, as we know, the big moment of truth in this relationship with the customers to which we attach so much importance. In France, our outstanding rose by 8 between November 2007 and November 2008, against 7.8 at end of October. Rose by 12.4 for the business.

The concerns now also affect big companies, especially in certain sectors such as automotive. Do you have made commitments to the public authorities

BNP Paribas accompanies the development of the major French groups in the world and continues to make its best efforts in a context become more difficult.