EuroBusiness Media: Natixis, the international Corporate & Investment Banking, Asset Management, Insurance and Payment arm of Groupe BPCE, is reporting its full-year results for 2019, Francois Riahi hello.
François Riahi: Hello.
EuroBusiness Media: You are the CEO of Natixis, what are some of the highlights of your 2019 results?
François Riahi: Well, actually, Natixis has reported very satisfactory results for 2019. We have recorded a specific year in terms of seasonality as Q1 and Q2 were low, but in Q3 and Q4 we have speeded up and actually, at the end of the year, we see very positive results for Natixis financially. It’s especially true for Asset Management. Asset Management has enjoyed a record year in 2019, both in terms of revenues, in terms of assets under management, we have maintained our margins. So everything is very positive in our Asset Management business in 2019. For Corporate & Investment Banking, 2019 is also a good year, especially in the fourth quarter, with very strong revenues on Investment Banking and M&A businesses, but also with very good cost control all along 2019. Insurance is still a very strong growth engine for Natixis, very positive results with growth of 8% a year, year on year, and an improvement of our profitability. And last, but not least, Payments, which is a very dynamic sector, where we have seen strong growth in terms of commercial performance, but also of profitability and especially with our fintechs, which demonstrate their very good dynamism. So, very good results for 2019 and our asset-light model allows us to distribute a strong dividend to our shareholders, 31 euro cents, so it’s another demonstration of our strong financial situation.
EBM: What were some of the main projects of the year 2019?
François Riahi: 2019 has been very rich in terms of projects. If I mention one project per business line, for Asset Management I would mention the project with La Banque Postale Asset Management to create a European leader on insurance asset management, that’s a very, very positive development for the future. It should find concretization in 2020. In Corporate & Investment Banking there have been many commercial successes, but I would mention what we have done on the climate. With the Green Weighting Factor, we have become the first bank to have the capacity to monitor our portfolio at every loan level, taking into account the environmental impact. This has been really noticed in the industry, because it’s very innovative and I think it’s very important for the future. In Insurance, we have led a lot of projects to prepare for our ambition in 2020, that will come live, which is to really complete the bankinsurance set-up of Groupe BPCE and in 2020 we are going to serve Banques Populaires on non-life insurance, which is a major development for us and we have updated all our IT systems to allow that. And for Payments, I would mention one project that we have realized with Visa, developing Xpollens, a fintech that is serving other fintechs or corporates providing payments-in-a-box services, which is also very innovative. So, as you see, 2019 has been very satisfactory financially, but it has also been very satisfactory in terms of strategic developments to prepare for the last year of our strategic plan.
EBM: Precisely. What are some of the challenges that lie ahead for 2020 and beyond?
François Riahi: 2020 is a very important year for us, because it’s the last year of our strategic plan, so we will continue to deliver the strategic projects that are on their way, but we also have to prepare for the future and we are working on our next strategic plan that we are going to release at the end of the year 2020. Meanwhile, we are also working on strengthening our agility and robustness in an ever-changing world. There are two things I would like to mention about the environment, two major disruptions that are the technological evolution and the climate change. These two disruptions, we have to take them into account, to adapt massively to these disruptions and that’s something we are also working on for our next strategic plan. So, I think what we can really build on is this asset-light model that we have been shaping over the last years. Just one figure to conclude, in 2019 the net interest margin part of our revenues is only 9%: that is the lowest amount among all European banks and I think that’s a major asset to build for the future in a world with very low interest rates.
EBM: François Riahi, CEO of Natixis, thank you very much.
François Riahi: Thank you.
