BNP’s brief status as ‘non-bank’ reversed in indexing volte face

ICB’s temporary reclassification triggers repricing of dividend futures in main eurozone banks index

Flickr/jyhern

For around 48 hours this week, BNP Paribas, the eurozone’s largest bank, ceased to be a bank – at least in the eyes of the Industry Classification Benchmark, a unit of London Stock Exchange Group whose taxonomy is widely used in third-party index construction.

In its February update of indicative quarterly changes, ICB, which is part of LSEG’s FTSE Russell benchmarks division, shunted the French firm from the ‘banks’ category to ‘diversified financial services’.

This was due to the bank’s sale