BNP Paribas has a presence in 75 countries with more than 180,000 employees, including more than 140,000 in Europe. It ranks highly in its three core activities: Retail Banking, Investment Solutions and Corporate & Investment Banking. At BNP Paribas, 2 flagships work on financial inclusion. Nickel and Microfinance.

Nikel is a fintech that works based on prepaid credit cards, has 2.2 million clients who at 80% earn less than 1500 euro per month.

Microfinance is a powerful lever of inclusion for people usually excluded from the traditional banking system: it allows them to start entrepreneurial micro-projects and improve their living standards. Thanks to the funding and services it offers to microfinance institutions, the Group has become a key player in this sector, alongside specialist funds and multilateral agencies.

The unique model for microfinance is

- to work alongside all business lines (lending, investment, saving, insurance, … but also cost functions like HR ),
- to finance MFI in high income countries as well as low income countries
- to finance though the Bank’s balance sheet and not though a foundation