BNP Poised to Name Chairman to Replace Prot, Le Figaro Says

BNP Paribas SA, the French lender fined a record $8.97 billion for U.S. sanctions violations, is preparing to name a successor to Chairman Baudouin Prot as soon as this week, Le Figaro reported.

A succession committee will meet Tuesday and the board is due to gather on Sept. 26 to ratify the appointment, the newspaper reported, without saying how it obtained the information. A spokeswoman for BNP Paribas declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News.

BNP Paribas posted its largest quarterly loss in July and replaced its compliance chief after pleading guilty to breaking sanctions on Sudan, Iran and Cuba. The lender Monday named Yann Gerardin successor to investment banking chief Alain Papiasse, who will oversee the Paris-based bank's efforts to meet U.S. regulatory requirements.

Prot, 63, a graduate of French business school HEC and the elite Ecole Nationale d'Administration, joined state-owned Banque Nationale de Paris SA in 1983. He became head of the French consumer-banking business four years later, and climbed the executive ladder to become chief executive officer from 2003 to 2011.

"I don't expect a noticeable change in strategy" with a new chairman, said Neil Smith, an analyst with Bankhaus Lampe in Dusseldorf, Germany, with a buy rating on BNP Paribas. "The choice for successor will be based on evolution rather than revolution."

BNP Paribas shares fell as much as 2 percent and were 1.8 percent lower at 52.68 euros as of 11:48 a.m. in Paris, valuing the bank at about 65.6 billion euros ($85 billion). The shares have dropped 7 percent this year compared with a 3 percent gain in the benchmark STOXX 600 Banks Index.

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