BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas last underwrote an Israeli government bond in March 2024, and unlike Barclays, which left the syndicate without saying so, it acknowledged the retreat openly. It continues to buy Israeli government debt at domestic auctions, a standardised process that Profundo's Ward Warmerdam says involves no direct relationship with the Israeli government, no prospectus and no public announcement. He describes both banks as 'trying to have it both ways'. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase still underwrite Israeli issues. Reported by Sebastian Shehadi on Profundo data.

BNP Paribas filed its 2025 universal registration document and annual financial report with France's financial regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers, on 19 March 2026. It contains the group's vigilance plan, published under France's 2017 law requiring large companies to identify and prevent serious harm to human rights, fundamental freedoms, health, safety and the environment arising from their business relationships. This is the successor to the 2024 plan whose omissions are the subject of the Paris proceedings.

BNP Paribas reported 2025 revenues of EUR 51,223 million, up 4.9 per cent, net income of EUR 12,225 million, up 4.6 per cent, and a return on tangible equity of 11.6 per cent against an 11.5 per cent target. It raised its 2028 trajectory at the same time.

BNP Paribas heads the European creditor table at $41.5 billion of loans and underwriting, ahead of Deutsche Bank at $38.3 billion, Barclays at $30.7 billion and HSBC at $25.2 billion. The report screens 104 businesses and identifies 1,115 European financial institutions with financial relationships to them: $310.65 billion of loans and underwriting between January 2023 and August 2025, and $1,503 billion of shares and bonds held at 31 August 2025. Researched by Profundo for the fifth Don't Buy Into Occupation report, hosted by the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq, with a foreword by the UN Special Rapporteur.

The Palestinian BDS National Committee named BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Barclays as the top creditor banks behind the companies in the report, said European financial institutions have been funding dozens of corporations 'directly enabling Israel's illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide against Indigenous Palestinians', and called on supporters to intensify divestment campaigning against complicit states, institutions and corporations.

UNI Global Union, the global federation of finance workers' unions, wrote to chief executive Jean-Laurent Bonnafé on 8 October 2025 asking BNP Paribas to stop financing companies operating in the occupied Palestinian territories and to conduct heightened human rights due diligence. The letter cites an Oxfam count of $28 billion of loans and underwriting to settlement-linked companies between January 2021 and August 2024, including $1.2 billion of underwriting for Siemens, which supplies and maintains rolling stock on Israel's A1 line serving settlements. It invokes the ICJ advisory opinion and their November 2024 global labour agreement.

BNP Paribas underwrote $2 billion of Israeli government bonds in March 2024, one of seven banks acting as intermediaries for $19.4 billion of issuance between 7 October 2023 and January 2025. It told the reporters it had neither invested nor provided financing, that its 'role as an intermediary is now over', and that deals after October 2023 had been arranged with other banks before the conflict began. Human rights experts quoted argue the activity may breach the OECD Guidelines on human rights due diligence. By Siem Eikelenboom and Casper Rouffaer, on Profundo research and SEC filings.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel concludes that Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces 'have committed and are continuing to commit' acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and that Israel bears responsibility for failing to prevent genocide, for committing it, and for failing to punish it.

BNP Paribas loosened the defence and security sector policy that had barred it since 2010 from financing the production and trade of 'controversial weapons', a term it judged too broad. The revised policy keeps exclusions only for weapons prohibited under major international agreements: anti-personnel mines, cluster munitions, and chemical, biological and nuclear weapons outside the relevant treaties. The bank said its sector policies are updated regularly and that the change 'reflects the group's long-standing commitment' to financing defence companies, primarily within NATO countries and mostly in Europe.

BNP Paribas excludes products and services linked to cluster munitions as defined by the 2008 Oslo Convention and anti-personnel mines as defined by the 1997 Ottawa Convention, and to non-detectable fragment weapons, blinding laser weapons, and biological, toxin and chemical weapons. It also excludes any transaction for the export of defence and security equipment to a country where the transaction would pose a major human rights risk. First published in 2010, and in this form after the 2025 revision.

BNP Paribas says it 'is not funding this conflict', that it provides no disputable financing, and that the financing it gives the companies named in the UN Special Rapporteur's report supports projects in Europe and elsewhere. On the Israeli sovereign bond, it says the issue was arranged with other banks and undertaken before the conflict. It points to its defence and security sector policy as evidence of vigilance in conflict zones. Published on the group's website in July 2025.

BNP Paribas is among the banks that allowed Israel to contain the interest rate premium on the treasury bonds funding the war in Gaza, in Al Jazeera's account of the UN Special Rapporteur's report.

BNP Paribas and Barclays are named among the world's largest banks that 'stepped in to boost market confidence' by underwriting Israel's international and domestic treasury bonds, allowing Israel to contain its interest rate premium despite a credit downgrade. Those bonds are the main source of finance for the Israeli State budget and played a critical role in funding the assault on Gaza. Israel increased its issuance to cover the war deficit, including $8 billion in March 2024 and $5 billion in February 2025. Found by the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory.

Juristes pour le respect du droit international (Jurdi) sued BNP Paribas at the Tribunal judiciaire de Paris for breach of its obligations under France's 2017 duty of vigilance law, alleging that the bank's 2024 vigilance plan omitted its financial support to Israel, including a guarantee on an $8 billion bond issue and support for Elbit Systems. The claim is brought by the association and its vice-president Ghislain Poissonnier, a small shareholder in the bank, represented by Ancile Avocats. The proceedings are civil, and judgment is expected to take up to two years.

BNP Paribas Securities Corp North America traded Elbit Systems shares during the first quarter of 2025, the Belgian organisations 11.11.11 and FairFin reported, reading SEC filings. They said the bank must withdraw from Elbit and blacklist comparable companies if it is serious about its ethical investment commitments. BNP Paribas Fortis replied that its US division acted as a broker for a client and that the group neither owns Elbit shares nor finances the company. The Belgian federal state holds a stake in BNP Paribas, which is why Belgian parliamentarians have pressed the point.

BNP Paribas deployed EUR 24 billion to defence-sector corporate clients by the end of 2024, EUR 12 billion of it directly attributable to defence. Seventy per cent of those companies are European, 40 per cent French and 25 per cent North American. It took part in EUR 55 billion of defence-sector bond issuance over three years, EUR 33 billion of it in 2024, and in EUR 2.2 billion of primary equity issuance in 2023-24, and managed EUR 2.5 billion of assets in defence companies. Its own figures, with no country, conflict or human rights condition attached.

Seven banks underwrote $19.4 billion of Israeli government bonds between 7 October 2023 and January 2025: Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Citi, Barclays and JPMorgan Chase. The Israeli government stated the issuance was to finance the costs of the war in Gaza. Goldman Sachs alone underwrote more than $7 billion. Researched by Profundo for BankTrack and the Dutch peace organisation PAX.

On figures published by AFPS, Attac France and BDS France, BNP Paribas extended $33 billion of credit to 58 complicit companies between January 2021 and September 2024, including EUR 5.7 billion to major weapons suppliers and $91 million invested in Elbit Systems. The same figures put its lending to Caterpillar at $674 million and its holding of Caterpillar shares and bonds at $235 million. These are campaigners' figures, not the bank's own disclosure. Published for a third national week of demonstrations at French branches, 13 to 19 January 2025.

BNP Paribas is among the largest European providers of finance to companies selling weapons to Israel, with $38 million to Elbit Systems, inside sector totals of EUR 36.1 billion of loans and underwriting and EUR 26 billion of shares and bonds held. Researched by Profundo for the Dutch peace organisation PAX.

The International Court of Justice held that Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful, that settlements and their associated economic activity are contrary to international law, and set out the obligations of other states in relation to dealings arising from the occupation.

BNP Paribas commits to a EUR 200 billion low-carbon transition target to 2025 in its green bond framework, the document governing what the proceeds of its green bond issues may fund.

The State of Israel registered an $8 billion multi-tranche international bond issue in the United States on 5 March 2024. Reading this filing, the research firm Profundo and Follow the Money put BNP Paribas's commitment at $2 billion of the $8 billion raised. It is the last Israeli sovereign issue BNP Paribas has taken part in, and the transaction the UN Special Rapporteur's report footnotes for its role.

The International Court of Justice found a real and imminent risk to the right of Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide, and ordered Israel to prevent them. The Court made no finding on the merits of the genocide claim, which remains pending.

BNP Paribas provided $17.30 billion of loans and underwriting to 27 of 50 settlement-supporting companies and held $3.34 billion of their bonds and shares, making it Europe's largest such lender and its twelfth largest investor. The companies include Booking.com ($592 million of credit between 2018 and May 2021), HeidelbergCement ($597 million), Elbit Systems ($38 million), Caterpillar, TripAdvisor and Airbnb. The coalition received no response from the bank's Paris headquarters, and demonstrations followed there and at branches across France and other European cities in February 2022.

A consortium including BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Lyonnais and Natixis Banques Populaires lent a total of EUR 288 million to the Israel Electric Corporation, which supplies electricity directly to Israeli settlements. Five French financial groups also held direct and indirect minority shareholdings in banks and businesses operating in settlements. Documented by the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq with FIDH, the Association France Palestine Solidarité, CCFD-Terre Solidaire, Fair Finance France, the Ligue des droits de l'Homme, Solidaires and the CGT.