The Big Take
Europe’s Banking Champion Has €7.6 Billion to Spend
BNP Paribas bank CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnafe has dodged the drama that ruined peers, but now faces the question of what’s next.
Illustration: 731/Getty(1)
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The man who runs the bank widely seen as the European champion-in-waiting has all he needs to take center stage with a major merger.
Jean-Laurent Bonnafe has built an $8.3 billion war chest and the biggest corporate and investment bank in Europe in his 12-year stretch atop BNP Paribas SA. The CEO has seized on rivals’ stumbles and cost-cut his way to record earnings, and he has extensive knowledge of how to pull off the cross-border marriages that every bank executive says must happen to compete with the encroaching American giants.