BNP Paribas has reported net operating profits in its corporate and investment banking division has plunged 95% to €37m ($47.5m) in the third quarter of the year compared to the same period a year earlier, as the division was hammered by higher loss provisions related to its credit exposure to monoline insurers, Lehman Brothers and Icelandic banks.

The French bank, which reported net group profits fell 55% to €901m in the three months to the end of September, said the unit's cost of risk had soared to €1.03bn in the quarter from €29m in the same period the year before as it was pummelled by its exposure to what it described as "one-off events" provoked by the severity of the market turbulence.