BNP Paribas revealed a €5 billion exposure to Greece, the largest among major French banks, as worries over contagion from the debt crisis keep lenders under pressure.
France's biggest listed bank said however it would not lend a helping hand to Greece by participating in a rescue package, as some German banks plan to do.
"The commitments we have made (on Greece) we will keep ... We will do all this but nothing more," chief executive Baudouin Prot told a news conference in Brussels, at the headquarters of the Fortis bank the French group acquired as part of a rescue deal.
The chief financial officer of Commerzbank, Eric Strutz, however said on a conference call about his bank's results that the private sector contribution to the Greece rescue was a joint Franco-German initiative.
BNP today posted first-quarter net profit that beat analyst forecasts, thanks to improved market conditions and the integration of Fortis, and said the economic recovery had begun.
Speaking on BFM radio, Mr Prot tried to calm fears that the Greek economic crisis could spread.
"All the scenarios for the contagion of the Greek crisis to Spain and Portugal are unfounded," he said.
He told Radio Classique meanwhile that BNP had decided not to reveal its exposure to euro zone countries aside from Greece.
The bank pegged its Greek sovereign debt exposure at €5 billion, a day after smaller rival Societe Generale said its exposure was €3 billion.
BNP also said today that it had €3 billion in corporate commitments in Greece, mainly with international firms and with risks that had "minimal correlation" to Greece's economy.
BNP's other major French rival, Credit Agricole, has said its sovereign Greek exposure is €850 million.
French bank Natixis' parent company BPCE said today its exposure to Greece stood at €2.1 billion, including €882 million at Natixis. Sovereign exposure was €1.4 billion.
This puts BNP firmly ahead of both French peers in Greek exposure. However, unlike them, BNP does not have a significant banking subsidiary within Greece, and analysts see the group as relatively less vulnerable to the broader Greek economy.