BNP Paribas has restructured its corporate and investment banking arm and reshuffled senior executives at divisional and group level, in a string of sweeping changes aimed at ensuring the French bank is best placed to weather the stormy economic climate.

BNP Paribas, whose corporate and investment bank posted a near-three-quarter fall in profits but remained in the black in the first quarter, has suffered smaller writedowns and a smaller hit to profits than several competitors since the credit crisis erupted last summer.