BNP Paribas, France's largest bank by market value, on Tuesday raised the level of synergies it expects to glean from integrating the activities of Belgian bank Fortis that it acquired earlier this year.

The Paris-based bank said in a statement it now plans to attain €900m ($1.4bn) of synergies by 2012 through weaving the Fortis businesses into its existing operations. That is a sharp increase on the initial synergy target of €500m the bank set last year when it first announced plans to buy Fortis.