>> first of all, regarding the bank performance, bnp paribas never gives proper guidance.hey told us that the bank should maintain a high level of profitability for the second half of this year. he also believes that the cost of risk would be the flat compared to last year after a 37% decrease on the second quarter. i caught up with the head of it, and asked him if the second quarter was particularly challenging. >> well, the environment is challenging, but if you look at the overall results of the group, they're really stronger. we're very satisfied with this -- with those sets of results, especially in retail, but also with investment solutions and even if we were in capital markets, what to pass through those markets are quite challenging. we're in a position to run the situation in a very safe way. we kept -- i'm sorry. we fixed at relevant positions like being number one in all euro bond issues. so challenging environment. very strong results, and as you can see a very nice position in terms of being able to achieve this new -- this new regulation. >> on bnp paribas,

lewis davis is a senior strategist at bnp-paribas. thank you for joining us. what do you make of the report? >> well, at face value, it's bearish for the oil price, given that they've lowered their demand growth estimates for 2012 and 2013. but given the overall size of the market and the ability of opec to swing production up or down 3 million barrels a day as they have done over the last three years, these slight revisions can be accommodated, shall we say, by saudi arabia in particular, just in its production. so, in summary, although face value, the report is price-bearish, i think that may be overstated, given the ability of opec to react. >> do you think opec will react? because they've sort of been arguing against others in opec about lower prices and therefore they've been willing to keep production higher. >> yeah, certainly they want to guard against high oil prices that could knock the world economy into recession, and therefore into low oil demand. and yet, saudi arabia particularly wants to protect an oil price that can generate enough revenues fo