BNP Paribas financing business, which draws on the French bank's €550bn retail deposit base to make loans in markets including energy and commodities, has returned to become one of the investment banking division's biggest earners for the first time since before the financial crisis.

BNP Paribas today identified "the very good performance in structured finance" as the key driver behind a rise in pre-tax profits at its investment bank, where this year's €5.3bn for the full was 9% up on the figure for 2009.