BNP Paribas announced on 18 November 2025 that Gilles Zeitoun will become Director and Chief Executive Officer of BNP Paribas Personal Finance with effect from 1 January 2026. Zeitoun, who currently serves as Deputy CEO of the consumer finance unit, will also join the BNP Paribas Executive Committee in his new capacity, elevating Personal Finance's leadership into the highest tier of the group's governance structure. The announcement was published in a press release by BNP Paribas Group.
The appointment follows a planned leadership transition at the helm of one of Europe's largest consumer credit businesses. BNP Paribas Personal Finance provides instalment loans, revolving credit, and a range of related financial products to retail customers, and works with partner retailers and financial institutions across dozens of countries. The scale of the operation and its strategic importance within the broader BNP Paribas group gives the CEO role significant weight within the Paris-headquartered banking conglomerate.
ZEITOUN STEPS UP FROM DEPUTY CEO POSITION
Zeitoun's promotion from Deputy CEO to chief executive of BNP Paribas Personal Finance is a natural internal progression that reflects his detailed knowledge of the business and the competitive environment in which it operates. Consumer finance in Europe has navigated a complex period, with higher interest rates affecting both the cost of funding for providers and the credit behaviour and affordability of borrowers. At the same time, digital transformation has continued to reshape how consumer credit products are originated, managed, and serviced, placing demands on any leader of a business of this scale.
His concurrent appointment to the BNP Paribas Executive Committee gives him a seat at the table for group-wide decisions and signals that Personal Finance's priorities will have direct representation in the bank's central leadership forum. The move is consistent with BNP Paribas's approach of ensuring that the heads of its major business divisions participate directly in group governance, enabling closer coordination of strategy across commercial lines and reducing the distance between divisional management and group-level decision-making.
Zeitoun's experience as Deputy CEO will be particularly valuable in the transition period, enabling him to assume the chief executive role with a thorough grasp of the business's operational realities, its key client and partner relationships, and the regulatory requirements it must navigate across the numerous European and international markets in which it operates.
DENNERY TRANSITIONS TO GOVERNANCE AND ADVISORY ROLES
Charlotte Dennery, who has led BNP Paribas Personal Finance as CEO and has been a prominent figure in the European consumer credit sector, will move into two new roles upon Zeitoun's appointment taking effect. She becomes Chair of the Personal Finance Board, maintaining a governance-level connection with the business she has led, whilst also taking on the position of Senior Advisor for the Commercial, Personal and Business Banking division of BNP Paribas.
The dual appointment ensures continuity at a moment of leadership change and makes constructive use of Dennery's deep institutional knowledge across both the consumer finance segment and the broader CPBS perimeter. Her move into chairperson and advisory capacities is a structure commonly adopted by large financial institutions to retain senior expertise during management transitions, benefiting both the outgoing executive and the incoming leadership as they settle into expanded responsibilities from the start of the new year.