Glossary

AAA: The highest financial rating for a company or a state. This rating is attributed by independent financial rating agencies and gives an idea of the solvency of the economic agent in question.
ABS: Asset Backed Securities.
These are securities backed by loans grouped within a single structure.
ABSA (Action à Bon de Souscription d’Action): share with share warrant attached.
Accretion: The opposite of dilution, i.e. a corporate action (share buyback for example) that leads to an increase in earnings per share.
ADP (Action à Dividende Prioritaire): preference share.
ADR: American Depositary Receipt
Negotiable certificates representing one or several shares. Their face value is stated in dollars and interest is also payable in dollars. ADRs allow American investors to buy shares in foreign-based companies that are not quoted on an American Stock Exchange.
AMF (Autorité des Marchés Financiers): French securities regulator
Created by the 17 July 2003 Financial Security Act, the AMF was formed by the merger of the French stock exchange commission (COB - Commission des Opérations de Bourse), and the financial markets commission (CMF - Conseil des Marchés Financiers). Its duties therefore include those taken over from these two bodies, i.e. drafting financial market regulations, notably stock exchange regulations, ensuring the protection of savings invested in transferable securities, supervising financial disclosures to investors and proposing measures to improve the efficiency of the financial markets, notably at international level. The law also allocated two new responsibilities to the AMF: regulation of investment advisory activities and supervision of rating agencies and financial analysts.
AMS: Asset Management & Services
The core business grouping asset management activities and related services.
Arbitrage: Activity that consists of attempting to profit by price differences on the same or similar financial assets. For example, in the case of a takeover bid, where the predator offers a price that exceeds the price at which the target's shares are trading.
Attendance fees: Fees paid to members of the Board of Directors and of the Supervisory Board. The overall amount of attendance fees is decided by the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders and the individual fees paid to members are decided by the Board based on a proposal by the Remuneration Committee.
Attribution right: Right to receive bonus shares issued in connection with a capital increase paid up by capitalising retained earnings. Attribution rights are quoted.
Avoir fiscal: Dividend tax credit available to individual shareholders resident in France on the dividends distributed by French companies. The purpose of the tax credit is to avoid double taxation of distributed earnings, in the hands of the company and the shareholder. The avoir fiscal granted to individual shareholders resident in France is equal to one half of the net dividend. It is deductible from personal income tax. If the avoir fiscal cannot be set off against taxable income it is refunded by the French Treasury.

B2B or BtoB : Business to Business : sales of products or services by one company to another.

B2C or BtoC: Business to Consumer: sales of products or services by a company to a consumer.

B2E portal : Intranet site for Group employees. The home page includes a browser, links to services and a wealth of information concerning the various functions within the Group, practical information for employees and career information.

Back office: Department responsible for all administrative processing.

BancWest: A retail bank operating in the west of the United States

Blue Chip: A term given to stocks with large capitalisations and significant liquidity, i.e. generating substantial daily stock market trading volumes.

BNL bc: the Italian retail bank acquired in 2006

Bond/debenture: Debt security whereby the issuer undertakes to pay the lender a fixed capital sum at a specific future date, plus twice-yearly or annual interest payments. Interest payments - generally at fixed rates - may vary over the life of the bond. Debentures are unsecured bonds

Capital : Amount of cash or assets contributed by shareholders, plus any profits, retained earnings or premiums transferred to the capital account. The capital may be increased or reduced during the life of the company.

Capital increase: A method of increasing a company's shareholders' equity. The capital may be increased by issuing new shares for cash or in exchange for assets, such as shares in another company. Alternatively, it may be increased by capitalising additional paid-in capital, retained earnings or profits and either raising the par value of existing shares or issuing new shares without consideration. Existing shareholders may have a pre-emptive right to subscribe for the new shares or this right may be cancelled. A capital increase may be carried out to give new investors an opportunity to become shareholders. All capital increases must be authorised in advance by the shareholders, in Extraordinary General Meeting.

Cash flow: Cash generated by operations that can be used to finance investment without raising equity or debt capital.

CB: Convertible Bond
Bond that can be converted under predetermined conditions into securities giving access to a company’s capital.

CDO: “Collateralised Debt Obligation”.
A structure used to securitize bonds and other debts.

CECEI : Comité des Établissements de Crédit et des Entreprises d'Investissment: committee headed by the Governor of the Banque de France responsible for monitoring the proper operation of the French financial and banking system.

Cetelem: A BNP Paribas subsidiary and leading European consumer credit company

CIB: Corporate and Investment Banking, one of the BNP Paribas Group's core businesses.

Club d’investissement (Investment club): A French variable capital or joint stock company that manages a portfolio of securities for its members based on a single initial contribution and/or regular contributions. French investment clubs benefit from an advantageous tax treatment of capital gains. All the information necessary for creating and operating an investment club can be obtained on request from the French federation of investment clubs, FFCI (Fédération française des clubs d’investissement), at 39 rue Cambon 75001 Paris.

Commercial banking MPD: Marketing & Product Development.

Comité Consultatif des Actionnaires: Shareholder Consultation Committee. A group of individual shareholders selected to advise the company on its communications targeted at individual shareholders. The BNP Paribas Comité Consultatif des Actionnaires was set up in the first half of 2000, at the time of the merger.

Consolidated financial statements: The consolidated financial statements present the results and financial situation of a group of companies, directly or indirectly controlled by one company (the parent company). Consolidation is said to be “full” for companies that are 50% or more owned by the “parent” company, and by the “equity method” for companies in which the parent company owns between 20% and 50% of the capital. The companies whose accounts are consolidated are included in the Group’s “consolidation scope”, which is presented in the annual report each year. The amount of net income attributable to minority shareholders is deducted from the consolidated net income in order to determine the “net income, group share”, the share of income or loss attributable to the parent company’s shareholders.

Consolidated net income: Net income of the Group after deducting the portion of the profits of subsidiaries attributable to minority shareholders.

Convertible bond: Bond convertible into the issuer's shares on terms set at the time of issue.

Corporate governance: Series of principles and recommendations to be followed by the management of listed companies.

Coupon: The coupon represents the right of the holder of a security to collect an amount corresponding to the revenue distributed on the security for a given year.

Cost/income ratio: General expenses/Net banking income. This ratio measures operating efficiency. The lower the ratio, the more efficient the operations.

Crossing of thresholds: All investors trading in shares on a regulated market are under the obligation, within five days and in the conditions provided for in Articles L233-7 to L233-14 of the French commercial code, to file a declaration with the AMF (Autorité des Marchés Financiers) if any of the following thresholds are crossed, in terms of capital or voting rights, both up or down, by either the individual investor or those acting in concert: 5%, 10%, 15%, 1/5, 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 90% and 95%. The issuer’s Articles of Association may provide for an obligation to declare for lower thresholds, but these can never be lower than 0.5%. Failure to declare the crossing of a threshold may result in the loss of voting rights. In respect of the 10% and 20% thresholds, the acquirer is under the obligation to declare his intentions over one year with regard to the company (takeover bid, request a seat on the board, etc.).

Custody fee: Fee received by a bank or broker to hold and service securities recorded in a securities account. Custody fees are payable annually in advance. They are not refunded if the securities are sold during the year, but no fees are payable on securities deposited during the year until the beginning of the next year.

CVR (Contingent Value Rights Certificate): Financial instrument generally issued in connection with the acquisition of a listed company, guaranteeing the value of the underlying security at a pre-determined date. The CVR entitles the shareholder of the target to receive an amount equal to the positive difference between the offer price and a "reference" price.

Derivatives: Contract whose value is based on the performance of an underlying financial asset, index or other investment, used to hedge or profit from future changes in the value of the underlying.
Dilution: Impact on the rights attached to a share of the issue of securities (in connection with a capital increase, a merger, a stock-for-stock tender offer or the exercise of rights), assuming that there is no change in the total income of the issuer.
Dividend: Portion of net profit that the Annual General Meeting decides to distribute to shareholders. The amount of the dividend is recommended by the Board of Directors. It represents the revenue on the share and the amount can vary from one year to the next depending on the company's results and policy.
DSK Contracts: DSK contracts are “contracts invested mainly in shares” whose assets are composed for at least 50% of European Union shares or similar securities and at least 5% invested in venture capital.

EONIA: Euro OverNight Index Average.
EUREX: Frankfurt-based derivatives market.
EURIBOR (EURopean InterBank Offered Rate): The most commonly used money market rate in the euro zone.

Euroclear: Formerly Sicovam. Clearing house for securities transactions.

Euronext SA: Company that operates the Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam stock exchanges. Euronext SA establishes market rules, decides to accept or reject listing applications and manages all trading technologies.

EVA: Economic Value Added
Difference between a company’s operating profit and the weighted average cost of the capital employed in operating the company.

FCP (Fonds Commun de Placement): Fund invested in stocks, bonds and/or money market securities. An FCP is similar to a SICAV, but is not a separate legal entity. FCPs are generally smaller than SICAVs and are easier to manage. They are subject to less restrictive regulations and can be more specialised.

FCPE (Fonds Commun de Placement d’Entreprise): Company investment fund.

Financial analyst: A financial analyst works either for banks or brokers (sell-side analyst) or for the investors (buy-side analyst). His task is to identify investment opportunities in respect of the companies he analyses and issue a recommendation (buy, sell, etc.) and set a target price.

Free Cash Flow: Cash available after financing operations and investments, available to pay down debt.

Free float: The amount of capital that is not controlled by long-term shareholders. In other words, capital that can be traded freely and is therefore available to investors, excluding for example shares held by the State or subject to a shareholders’ agreement, etc. On 1 December 2003, the stocks that make up the CAC 40 index became weighted according to their free float instead of by their market capitalisation. This change was prompted by the wish to be consistent with the other main indices worldwide, which already function in this way and to facilitate comparison between sectors and stocks. BNP Paribas has a free float of 95% - one of the highest on the Paris stock exchange.

Gain/loss on securities: Positive/negative difference between the sale price of a security and the purchase price.

Goodwill: Difference between the cost of shares and the Group's equity in the fair value of the underlying net assets

Hedge Funds: Funds that take both long and short positions, use leverage and derivatives and invest in manymarkets.

IFRS: International Financial Reporting Standards.
International accounting standards adopted by the European Union on 1 January 2005 and called IFRS-EU for the 2005 financial year.

IFU (Imprimé Fiscal Unique): French tax return issued by a bank or broker, listing all the securities transactions carried out on behalf of the taxpayer and all the coupon payments made to the tax payer.

Institutional investor: Financial institution which, by definition or by virtue of its articles of association, is required to hold a certain proportion of its assets in stocks and shares. Examples include insurance companies and pension funds.

IRB: International Retail Banking, one of the BNP Paribas Group's core businesses.

IRS: International Retail Services, BNP Paribas Group’s international retail banking and financial services core business

ISIN Code: International identification number for listed securities which replaced the well-known Sicovam code (Sicovam has since become “Euroclear”). On 30 June 2003, Euronext Paris ceased to use its own securities identification system and switched to the ISIN (International Securities Identification Number) code. This code, which had already been adopted by many European stock exchanges (Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, Frankfurt, etc.), aims to assign a unique identity to each security and thus facilitate cross-border transactions, notably by improving harmonisation within Euronext. The ISIN code consists of 12 characters: 2 letters indicating the issuer country (FR for France, US for the United States, etc.) and 10 digits. The BNP Paribas ISIN code is FR0000131104

LBO: Leveraged Buy Out. Company acquisition financed primarily by debt. In practice, a holding company is set up to take on the debt used to finance the acquisition of the target. The interest payments due by the holding company are covered by ordinary or exceptional dividends received from the acquired target.

Leverage effect: Levering of returns and risk using options, futures or transactions on the deferred settlement market.

Leveraged Finance: Financing with leverage effect.

LIFFE: London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange.

Liquidation: date on which transactions on the monthly settlement market are unwound. This date is the fifth trading day after the last stock market trading session of the month.
Liquidity : Ratio between the volume of shares traded and the total number of shares in issue.

LME: London Metal Exchange

M & A: Mergers & Acquisitions.

Margin: Guarantee deposit required by the intermediary to cover forward transactions carried out by a client. This guarantee can be deposited either in cash or securities. For the deferred settlement market (SRD - Service de Règlement Différé) the minimum margin is 20% if it is in the form of cash, Treasury bills or money market funds, 25% if it is in the form of listed bonds, negotiable debt securities or bond funds, and 40% if it is in the form of listed shares or funds invested mainly in equities. In practice, the margin applied is at the intermediary’s discretion. It can raise the percentages required based on its own assessment and can even request a margin that covers the full price of the purchase.

Market capitalisation: Value attributed to a company by the stock market. Market capitalisation corresponds to the share price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding.

Market-maker/Market-Making Contract: Market-makers commit to maintaining firm bid and offer prices in a given security by standing ready to buy round lots at publicly-quoted prices. Market-making contracts generally concern mid-cap stocks and are intended to enhance the stocks' liquidity. In France, market-making contracts ("contrats d'animation") are entered into between Euronext, the issuer and a securities dealer.

MBS: Mortgage Backed Securities.
These are financial securities backed by mortgage loans and grouped within an investment structure.

MONEP (Marché d’Options Négociables de Paris): Paris traded options market, including Cac 40 index options and equity options.

Monoliner: These are loan guarantee organisations, which are also known as credit enhancers.

Net banking income: the equivalent of turnover for a bank

OAT (Obligation Assimilable du Trésor): French government bonds.

OBSA (Obligation à Bon de Souscription d’Action): Bond with share warrant attached.

OBSO (Obligation à Bon de Souscription d’Obligation): Bond with bond warrant attached.

OCEANE (Obligation Convertible En Actions Nouvelles ou Existantes): Bond convertible for new shares or exchangeable for existing shares of the issuer.

OPA (Offre Publique d’Achat): French acronym for a public tender offer for cash.

OPE (Offre Publique d'Échange): French acronym for a public stock-for-stock tender offer.

OPF (Offre à Prix Fixe): French acronym for a public offering of securities at a set price.

Option: A contract that is valid up to a predetermined date and which gives the holder the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell a security at a predetermined price (strike price) on immediate payment of the option price. Options are traded on the MONEP. Options can be either a purchase (call) option or a sell (put) option.

OPR (Offre Publique de Retrait): French acronym for a compulsory buyout offer (final stage in a squeeze-out).

OPRA (Offre Publique de Rachat d'Actions): French acronym for an offer to buy out the minority shareholders of a company that is already largely controlled (first stage in a squeeze-out). Option Contract giving the buyer the right (but not the obligation), to purchase or sell a security at a future date, at a price fixed when the option is written (exercise price), in exchange for a premium paid when the option is purchased. Options to purchase a security are known as calls and options to sell a security are known as puts.

OPV (Offre Publique de Vente): French acronym for a public offering of securities at a set price.

ORA (Obligation Remboursable en Actions): French acronym for equity notes, representing bonds redeemable for shares

Par value (nominal or face value): The par value of a share is the portion of the share capital represented by the share. At the time of BNP’s privatisation the par value was 25 French francs. On 5 January 1999, in preparation for the switch over to the euro, the par value was changed to €4 per share. On 20 February 2002 the par value of the Bank’s share was halved, bringing it to €2 per share, in order to ensure a high level of accessibility for individual investors.

PEA (Plan d’Épargne en Actions): French name for personal equity plans. Savings products designed to promote private share ownership, invested in shares of companies that have their headquarters in a European Union country or in units in qualifying unit trusts, revenues and capital gains are exempt from personal income tax and capital gains tax provided that the savings are left in the plan for at least five years. Investments in PEAs are capped at EUR 120,000 per individual.

PEE (Plan d’Épargne Entreprise): French name for employee share ownership plans. Payments into the plan and reinvested interest are exempt from personal income tax provided that they are left in the plan for at least five years (with early withdrawal allowed in certain specific cases). Surrender gains are also exempt from personal income tax.
Personal Finance: an IRS entity that includes Cetelem’s consumer credit activities and UCB’s property loans activity

Pre-emptive subscription rights: When a company issues shares for cash, each shareholder has a pre-emptive right to subscribe for a number of new shares pro rata to the number of shares already held. The right can be traded on the stock market. Companies can ask the General Meeting to cancel shareholders' pre-emptive subscription rights to facilitate certain operations or allow the company to open up its capital to new investors.

Preference shares: Preference shares are shares that pay dividends at a specified rate and have a preference over ordinary shares in the payment of dividends and the liquidation of assets. They do not carry voting rights.

Price guarantee: When a company acquires control of a listed target, it is required to offer the target's minority shareholders the opportunity to sell their shares at the same price as that received by the sellers of the controlling interest. The offer must remain open for at least fifteen trading days.

Primary market: Market where newly-issued securities are bought and sold.

Prime brokerage: Activity consisting of providing a wide range of services to hedge funds, including financing, securities settlement/delivery, custody, securities lending/borrowing, etc.

Private Equity: Investment in the shares of unlisted companies.

Pro forma: An accounting presentation that enables comparison between two financial years by harmonising variable elements such as exchange rates or changes in the consolidation scope.

Public tender offer: Offer to buy shares of a company, usually at a premium above the shares' market price, for cash or securities or a combination of both. Where only a small proportion of the company's shares are traded on the market and the offer is followed by a compulsory buyout, the process is known as a "squeeze-out".

Quorum: General Meetings can take place only if there is a quorum. For Ordinary General Meetings, on first call there is a quorum if the shareholders present and represented hold at least 1/4 of the voting rights. There is no quorum requirement on second call. For Extraordinary General Meetings, the quorum corresponds to 1/3 of the voting rights on first call and 1/4 on second call. For combined meetings, the quorum requirements depend on whether the resolutions are "ordinary" or "extraordinary".

Quotation: The quotation determines the price of a security on the market at a given point in time. Prices are generally quoted on a continuous basis throughout the day (from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.), providing a real-time indication of the prices at which the security concerned is changing hands. Continuous quotation allows market players to closely track market trends. Quotations for securities with a low trading volume are made once a day.

Rating/rating agencies: A rating represents an assessment of the default risk on debt securities. The rating awarded to an issuer has a direct impact on the issuer's borrowing costs. Changes in ratings also have a significant impact on the issuer's share price. The main rating agencies are Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch.

RBF: Retail Banking France

Registration document: The registration document is prepared at the end of each financial year and contains all the legal, economic, financial and accounting information required for a listed company. It is filed and registered with the AMF (Autorité des Marchés Financiers) and published immediately on the AMF’s website.

RELIT: Euronext Paris settlement-delivery system.

Report: On the Euronext Paris market, transaction allowing an investor to carry forward a buy or sell position from one deferred settlement date to the next.

RFS: Retail Financial Services, one of the BNP Paribas Group's core businesses.

Road show: A series of meetings in France and abroad with financial analysts and investors organised by the management of a company to present its activity and results.

ROE: Return on Equity. Ratio between consolidated net income and consolidated shareholders' equity.

SBF 120: stock market index composed of the stocks included in the CAC 40 index plus the eighty next most active stocks, selected from among the 200 largest market capitalisation

Secondary market: Market where securities are bought and sold subsequent to their issue.

Securitisation: This corresponds to the sale by a credit institution of its receivables to an investor in the form of units or shares in a securitisation fund. This enables the credit institution to transfer the risk on its receivables to the investors and to receive cash.

Share: A share is a transferable security representing a portion of the capital of a limited company or a partnership limited by shares. Ownership of shares is evidenced by an entry in the issuer's share register (registered shares) or in a securities account kept in the holder's name by a bank, stockbroker or other accredited intermediary (bearer shares). Shares quoted on the stock exchange are also referred to as "equities".

Share fraction: A share fraction corresponds to the difference between the number of shares owned by a shareholder and the closest multiple of the minimum number of old shares required to participate in a transaction such as a share exchange, share subscription, allocation, etc.). Share fractions are traded on a unit basis to obtain the required multiple or the corresponding shares can be sold at the end of the operation and the amounts allocated to the holders concerned.

SICAV (Société d’Investissement à Capital Variable): Variable capital investment company that manages a portfolio of securities on behalf of its share holders. Shares may be purchased or redeemed at any time. The shares are not listed but their value (corresponding to the company's net asset value per share) varies each day based on changes in the value of the securities held in the portfolio.

SICOVAM: Société Interprofessionnelle pour la Compensation des Valeurs Mobilières, now renamed Euroclear France. Organisation responsible for clearing securities trades, centralising all stock maket transactions and facilitating the transfer of securities between member institutions.

Split: The division of the par value of a share, usually carried out to increase its liquidity or make it more accessible to individual investors. The BNP Paribas share underwent a two for one share split on 20 February 2002, bringing the par value from €4 to €2 per share.

SPVT (Spécialiste en Pension des Valeurs du Trésor): Primary dealer in French government bond repos.

SRD (Service de Règlement Différé): French market where the main French and foreign equities are traded. Equities or bonds purchased with deferred settlement are purchased on credit. The buyer is required to settle the purchase price and the seller is required to deliver the securities on the next settlement date, unless one or other of the parties asks for the transaction to be carried over the to next settlement date ("report").

SRI: Socially Responsible Investment

Subprime: Property loans extended to US households with poor solvency, and often extended without any proof of income. As these loans represent a high risk, they carry high floating interest.

Subscription right: Right to participate in a share issue for cash.

Tax allowance: Tax allowance for revenues from capital investments. For example, dividend revenues benefit from a proportional allowance of 40% of the revenue distributed plus a personal tax allowance of €3,050 for a married couple taxed jointly and of €1,525 for a single person.

TBB (Taux de Base Bancaire): Interest Base rate.

Tier 1: Core equity. The Tier 1 ratio partly guarantees the commitments.

TMO (Taux Mensuel de rendement des emprunts Obligataires): Interest rate corresponding to the monthly bond yield.

TP (Titre Participatif): participating security

TPI: Titre au Porteur Identifiable. Procedure allowing issuers to obtain information about the identity of holders of bearer shares from Euroclear.

Trade Center: Specialised sales force set up by BNP Paribas to partner its corporate customers' international development. The Trade Centers offer importers and exporters a wide range of customised services based on the "one-stop-shopping" principle.

Transaction advice: Advice note transmitted by the financial intermediary to a client after a stock market order has been executed. It describes the terms and conditions of execution of the order.

Treasury shares: Shares held by the issuer. Treasury shares are stripped of voting and dividend rights and are not taken into account in the calculation of earnings per share.

TSDI (Titre Subordonné à Durée Indéterminée): French acronym for perpetual subordinated notes.

TSR (Total Shareholder Return): corresponding to return on the capital invested by shareholders, including dividends and unrealised gains on the shares.

UCB: Union de Crédit pour le Bâtiment; a BNP Paribas subsidiary specialised in retail property loans

UCITS: Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities. Term covering unit trusts and variable capital investment companies.

Vesting rights: The right to receive revenue from capital invested at a given date:
• vesting date of a share: date on which the pecuniary rights attached to the share come into effect;
• vesting date of a loan: date on which the loan begins to bear interest.

Voting right: Right of a shareholder to vote in person or by proxy at General Meetings.

Volatility: Volatility is the term used to describe the behaviour of a market or of a stock whose prices fluctuate widely and rapidly.

Warrant: Certificate issued on a stand-alone basis or strippable from another security (share, bond) giving the holder the right to acquire securities (share, bond). Warrants issued by financial institutions acting as market-maker give the holder the right to purchase (call warrant) or sell (put warrant) various underlyings (interest rate, index, currency, equities) at a fixed exercise price during a fixed exercise period. Although these warrants constitute options, they cannot be sold short.

Work Flow: Process automation technology allowing the sequential transmission of digital documents and files to the various people responsible for processing the data.

Yield: Indicator of the return on an investment, expressed in percent. For shares, the yield corresponds to the ratio between the last dividend paid and the last share price

5 November 2009:

Publication of 3rd Quarter Results

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[01 December 2009]

Investors' Day

[17 February 2010]

Publication of 4th Quarter Results 2009

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