BNP Paribas hired way more interns last year, but fewer in France, weirdly
In a world in which AI has been discussed as potentially cutting intern classes at investment banks by up to two-thirds, it can be reassuring to know that banks are still hiring normal-sized intern classes – banks including BNP Paribas.
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BNP released its annual report earlier this month and detailed the number of interns it hired. Overall, the number of interns at the French bank was up, from 1,674 in 2024 to 1,834 in 2025, an increase of almost 10%. The 2025 figure was even up on the 1,759 interns that BNP recruited in 2023.
Strangely, however, the number of graduates in France specifically declined, from 490ish in 2023 and 2024 to just 387 in 2025. That's a substantial drop– around 21% – and it’s not entirely clear why. The claim made in August last year that the bank recruited an “unusually small number of summer interns” might be related.
While the data doesn’t go far back, it’s still a positive upward trend. At Deutsche Bank, by contrast, the number of graduates has decline steadily since 2023, from 1,177 to 1,025, a decline of 13%. It’s also declined steadily at Goldman Sachs, from 2,900 to 2,600, a decline of around 10%.
There were some other interesting tidbits buried in BNP’s report. For example, the fact that 5% of BNP’s female workforce in EMEA identified as disabled in 2025, compared to 0.2% of female employees in Asia Pacific, or 1.7% of female employees in the Americas. Or the fact that men have a slightly higher voluntary turnover (attrition) rate – and less training hours on average – than women.
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