French banks have been suffering from a sluggish economic environment. This situation prompted them to look for growth drivers with their insurance subsidiaries whose activities also generated net banking revenues.
This income requires little capital return which is an advantage in terms of return on equity. BNP Paribas and Société Générale have seen their banking income shrink in 2014 by 1% and 1.9% respectively while their insurance companies reported a leap of 8.5% for BNP Cardif and of 12% for Société Générale.
At Crédit Mutuel, the insurance activity has been growing by 8.5% with a profit increase of 11% compared to 1% for the bank.
The same trend has been noted with Crédit Agricole where banking business has deteriorated while the results generated by insurance are on the rise.