French bank BNP Paribas said its wealth and asset management arm had taken in €14bn ($19bn) last year, 6% of the value of its assets under management at the start of the year. But half of this was low margin, money market funds.

The revenue figures that it publishes - for its Wealth and Asset Management division, it does not publish separate figures for its asset management operation on its own - showed that pre-tax income fell from €599m in 2008 to €569m last year, despite an increase in revenue. The bank said: "[The] fall in the margin rate [was] due to the significant share of short-term products at the beginning of the year".