A French multinational banking and financial services company. In 2019, it announced that it would stop financing private prison company GEO Group, but its current involvement cannot be verified.
BNP Paribas is a French multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Paris. It used to be one of several major financiers of private prison and immigrant detention companies, having provided revolving lines of credit, term loans, and bond underwriting services to GEO Group. In 2019, it announced, along with several other major financial institutions, that it would exit the private prison industry.
In 2022, GEO Group entered into a new credit agreement, replacing a previous agreement that consisted of a $900 million revolving line of credit and a $792 million term loan. BNP Paribas was part of the previous agreement, having served as the administrative agent and provided an undisclosed amount of money to the deal. Unlike in previous years, public disclosures regarding the 2022 agreement only named the administrative agent, Alter Domus. While other lenders are also involved, they were not named. Therefore, it cannot be verified whether BNP Paribas is still involved.
The bank's known past involvement includes:
- In September 2014, GEO Group issued $250 million of bonds, with a maturity date of 2024. As part of a syndicate of banks, BNP Paribas underwrote $18.8 million worth of these bonds.
- In April 2016, GEO Group issued $350 million of bonds, with a maturity date of 2026. As part of a syndicate of banks, BNP Paribas underwrote $24.5 million worth of these bonds.
- On April 26, 2017, University of Wisconsin-Madison students passed a resolution to call for the university's divestment from private prisons and corporations that build border walls, naming Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Honeywell, L-3 Communications, Boeing, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, BNP Paribas, Suntrust, US Bank Corp., and Wells Fargo.