BNP Paribas, the Paris-listed banking giant, said today that its investment solutions segment, which covers wealth management, logged a 6.8 per cent year-on-year rise in revenues, standing at €1.623 billion (around $2.31 billion).

The division made a pre-tax income of €549 million, a rise of 15.6 per cent on a year ago, shrugging off the impact of Greek debt losses.

Wealth and asset management segments saw a 1.2 per cent in revenue growth, driven by units such as real estate services. Insurance had a strong quarter, with a year-on-year revenue gain of 15.6 per cent.

Assets under management, which totalled €896 billion, edged up 2.5 per cent compared to 30 June 2010 and down by 0.8 per cent from 31 March this year.

For the first half of the year as a whole, in a difficult market environment for financial savings, the operating division had €5.2 billion in asset inflows, with €7.7 billion inflows in to wealth management, with strong contributions in Asia, Germany, Luxembourg and Taiwan.

The French banking group said that across all divisions, it logged net income, attributable to ordinary shareholders, of €2.128 billion in the second quarter of 2011, a rise of 1.1 per cent from a year before. The bank logged growth across all its divisions.

BNP Paribas said it would take a hit from the debt woes of Greece, which has been battling against sovereign default. The bank said that the cost of risk, which was €1.350 billion, was affected this quarter by the provision set aside for Greek government bonds that are eligible under the Greek assistance programme organised by the European Union. The programme applies to government bonds that mature before 31 December 2020, resulting in a 21 per cent loss for the private holders of these bonds. BNP Paribas holds €2.3 billion in Greek government bonds.

The bank had a Tier 1 ratio of 11.9 per cent at the end of June.