BNP Paribas net profit falls 21 percent

PARIS (Reuters) - BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA), France's biggest listed bank, posted a 21 percent fall in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday although the figure came in above the consensus forecast.

Net profit fell to 1.981 billion euros (1.02 billion pounds), led by a 73 percent drop in earnings at BNP Paribas' corporate and investment banking division which made further writedowns due to the impact of the global credit crunch.

The drop in earnings at the investment banking arm contrasted with higher profits at its retail banking operations. BNP Paribas made a writedown of 514 million euros at its investment banking arm.

A Reuters poll of 20 analysts gave an average net profit forecast of 1.675 billion euros.

Gross operating profit fell 23 percent to 2.79 billion euros, below an average forecast of 2.89 billion.

BNP Paribas is the second of France's major banks to post first-quarter profits, with the global financial sector still reeling from the effects of losses in the U.S. subprime mortgage market.

Earlier this week, rival French bank Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) reported a 23 percent fall in net profit while rivals such as Deutsche Bank DBGKn.DE, UBS (UBSN.VX) and Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) have posted first-quarter losses.

BNP Paribas said the performance showed the company's resilience.

"This performance confirms the group's ability to weather the storm and to continue to pursue its development strategy," Chief Executive Baudouin Prot said in a statement.