France’s biggest listed bank blames a 534 million euro charge on the value of its stake in the insurance firm AXA.

It said the surprise one-off charge was due to “highly volatile” post-crisis stock markets valuations of AXA. BNP owns 5.2 percent of AXA’s shares.

Following in the footsteps of smaller rival Societe Generale — which met fourth-quarter forecasts on Wednesday — BNP raised its dividend to 2.1 euros per share, from 1.5 euros in 2009.

It also boosted its cost-savings target for Belgian acquisition Fortis to 1.2 billion euros, from 900 million.