BNP Paribas has hired Margaret Ren, one of the original China banking rainmakers, as chairman and chief executive of corporate finance, Greater China. Ren, most recently head of China Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch, made her reputation for her ability to use her connections in China to land big deals for her employers, first Bear Stearns and then Citigroup, where she worked until 2004. Those deals included getting Bear Stearns, which had little China presence at the time, on to big equity mandates for China Telecom and Guangshen Railway.

BNP Paribas: The French bank has been adept at finding new sources of finance in a tight market and succeeding with difficult deals

Fortis acquisition gives unprecedented scale; Organic growth continues in France, Italy

Moscow-headquartered investment bank Renaissance Capital has teamed up with France’s BNP Paribas to offer investors a diversified form of structured equity exposure to the Russian market.

BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas

Widespread speculation about the likely purchaser of Bank of America’s equity prime brokerage business has come to an end.

BNP Paribas is presenting MillionTreesNYC in New York, a citywide, public-private scheme with the goal of planting and caring for a million trees across New York’s five boroughs over the next 10 years. Introduced as one of mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 127 PlaNYC initiatives to create a healthier, sustainable city, MillionTreesNYC will increase the city’s tree-count by 20%.

A merger of BNP Paribas and Société Générale would be difficult to fund and to execute.

Daniel Bouton of Société Générale, Baudouin Prot of BNP Paribas, Walter Rothensteiner of Raiffeisen Zentralbank and Alfredo Sáenz of Santander speak about the challenges in the new financial world order.

Guy Hart, head of ABS syndicate at BNP Paribas, is understood to be leaving the French bank. Hart has been at BNP Paribas since joining from Nomura in 1998. He is a victim of the bank’s projected business levels for next year. With so much less activity expected for 2008 in ABS and CDOs, BNP Paribas’ structured finance division has been trimmed. Accompanying Hart out of the door will be Christos Danias, head of European CDOs and fellow CDO structurer William Ma, who only joined the bank last January from Moody’s.

BNP Paribas has priced the first property derivatives trade based on a basket of indices. To date, property derivative trades have been based on single indices but the Paribas trade signals a new direction for the market, and more basket trades are expected to appear.

BNP Paribas has shown strength in meeting client needs by innovating across a wide range of asset classes.

The good times might be back in Asia’s markets for foreign investment banks. Alas, though, the feel-good factor does not appear to have reached French bank BNP Paribas.

Recent visitors to BNP Paribas’ London headquarters have been greeted by placards in the entrance hall that urge staff to "Be smart".

At Euromoney’s Paris Forum held at the end of 2006, the chief executive of BNP Paribas, Baudouin Prot, outlined some of the challenges facing major financial institutions. Principal among these is the growth and globalization of the banking industry. The interview was conducted by Chris Garnett, Euromoney’s director of conferences. Read or listen to it here.

Summary table of top banks, with quick links to more related content on euromoney.com

In the latest example of the growing focus on infrastructure opportunities in the ABS market, BNP Paribas has formed a specialized product group in its fixed income securitization business.

But will others also shun the obligations foncières structure?

French bank BNP Paribas is being sued in the US federal courts by a hedge fund over the financing of contracts for oil from Congo-Brazzaville. Rather than settling out of court, BNP says it will fight the lawsuit all the way. Felix Salmon reports on a grey area of black gold.

The French bank has taken the lead in developing structured notes and innovating in products linked to inflation, FX rates and equity.

BNP Paribas has topped the investment grade section of the Euromoney credit research poll for the past three years but this success has not stood in the way of a shift to a new research model.

French bank increases staffing and product offering.

BNP Paribas offered a new, institutionally-targeted twist on credit CPPI products.

Innovation and wider investor participation continue apace.

BNP Paribas has filled its global head of securitization post. Former Morgan Stanley securitization syndicate and trading head Tim Drayson joined last month. Drayson left Stanley after 10 years in March and joins at a time when BNPP has advertised its intention to grow its securitization business.

BNP Paribas seen as probable buyer

Awards for Excellence 2005

BNP and SG say they are taking a calculated risk, but can the investment pay off?

BNP Paribas has appointed Patrick Calinski to its corporate debt capital markets (DCM) team in Paris. Calinski started at the beginning of April reporting to Jérôme Clément-Cottuz, head of DCM for Belgium, France and Luxembourg. He joins from Natexis Banques Populaires where he has worked for 12 years.