The first quarter was a mixed bag for the world’s biggest banks. Global investment banking revenue was well up, especially in the US, as was trading volume (mostly due to Iran-driven volatility). But not every bank benefited – and some of the most unfortunate were in France.

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Even though global banking revenue did well – up by 9%, according to market intelligence provider LSEG (formerly Refinitiv), it was not so sunny in France. Investment banking total revenue in France & Benelux actually fell in Q1, LSEG said, by around 6%, which was less than it fell in EMEA as a whole, but still ugly.

France has a number of banks, but there are three above all: BNP Paribas, SocGen, and Crédit Agricole. These banks – especially the first two – are huge for investment banking, and the ones most likely to be compared on a global stage to JPMorgan and Barclays and the likes.

It’s difficult to pin down exactly what each bank made in everything. Figures, especially for investment banking, are not clear cut – and do not always solely include M&A and debt/equity capital markets (DCM/ECM, respectively). Sales & trading figures, where available, are more consistent for both equities and fixed income, currencies, and commodities (FICC).

BNP Paribas

BNP is the biggest of France’s banks. Revenue in its corporate & investment bank (CIB) was described by the bank in its Q1 of 2026 disclosure as “stable” – it fell by 0.8% versus Q1 of 2025. Adjusted for currency fluctuations, however, it did increase slightly – 3.1% in total.

Investment banking revenue did particularly badly at BNP, although the bank’s weighting towards France/Europe softened the blow. BNP noted that, despite an adjusted 5.1% revenue decrease, it gained market share in “the league tables rankings”.

Trading revenue was more stable, with FICC revenue flat and equities revenue up by a modest (adjusted) 9.3%. Overall, BNP noted that this was 6.6% up, adjusted for currency conversions. The bank noted that its core FICC clientele “continued to be impacted by market uncertainties.”

BNP is currently engaged in some mild cuts to its London office, and especially its equities team. Only about 20 people seem to have left the firm, but it wasn’t noted anywhere in its Q1 report, which said that cost control in the CIB was “effective”.

Société Générale

SocGen is the middle child of France’s big banks. It also performed the worst, which is not a comment on middle siblings: global banking was down by 0.5% adjusted for currency conversion, and global markets was up by just 0.5% by the same metric.

Equities revenue, which increased by an adjusted 10.9%, was a bright spot for the firm. The firm noted that it was a record quarter driven by “strong flow activity”, and that financing activity also grew due to increased prime brokerage activity.

FICC, however, performed poorly, falling by 15.1%, adjusted for foreign exchange differences. SocGen blamed this on lower revenue in rates in Europe driven by “challenging commercial and market conditions.” These same conditions did not seem to challenge SocGen’s peers so much, however.

Crédit Agricole

Crédit Agricole, despite being the smallest of the three banks here, had a pretty good Q1. Its investment banking team in particular saw revenue increase by 29% (adjusting for foreign exchange impact), which the bank credited to “good commercial momentum” in its M&A and ECM activities, among others.

Sales & trading revenue did not do so well. Crédit Agricole doesn’t break out the performance of its equities team, but it noted that its FICC team oversaw a revenue decline of 6.4% due to what it called a “wait-and-see market”. Apparently, clients at Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, or UBS were more brash.

The bank noted that expenses in its CIB were down 3%, which it called “stable”, after a downsizing of the bonus pool.

In its Q1 disclosures, Crédit Agricole also noted that it was the second-ranked CIB worldwide for “Green, Social & Sustainable bonds in EUR”, however, as well as third for all EUR bonds. Which is something.

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