BNP Paribas announced a 14.6% rise in net profit Wednesday, up 2.61 billion euros ($3.86 billion), in its first-quarter results for 2011. The company attributed the strong performance in part to the reduced cost of its risks. It had 919 million euros of outstanding customer loans, down 418 million euros on the same period last year. It also made further cost savings from the integration of its 2009 acquisition of Fortis and strong performances from all its units, it said.