BNP Paribas Makes ‘Courtesy Visit’ to S. African Bank Regulator

BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank, met with South Africa’s banking regulator to exchange information about operating in Africa’s largest economy, the regulator said.

BNP “paid a courtesy visit to have a conversation about normal international banking information,” Errol Kruger, the Pretoria-based Registrar of Banks, said in a telephone interview yesterday. Yesterday’s meeting lasted an hour and BNP may be in touch with the central bank again, he said, adding that the lender hasn’t applied for a banking license in South Africa.