BNP Paribas , France’s largest bank, posted second-quarter profit that was little changed as a surge in bond trading was offset by a drop in equities and low interest rates hampered consumer banking.

Net income was €2.56 billion, up 0.2 per cent from a year earlier, the Paris-based bank said in a statement on Thursday.

The bank recorded pretax gains from exceptional items, including selling its stake in Visa Europe, of €285 million, about the same as last year’s level.

Chief executive Jean-Laurent Bonnafe (55) leads a bank that has fared better than many of its European peers in 2016 after it took additional steps to bolster capital, sparing BNP from the deep restructuring of the securities unit that competitors such as Deutsche Bank are undertaking.

“Reaching growth also means that we have to shed our activities which are less yielding” in corporate and institutional banking, said chief financial officer Lars Machenil.

BNP’s total revenue rose 2.2 per cent to €11.32 billion. The bank recorded a €597 million pretax gain from its stake in Visa Europe. – (Bloomberg)