BNP Paribas is setting up equity derivatives flow sales desks in London and Paris. Christian Kwek, head of equity derivatives marketing for Europe in London, said, "We would like to be able to offer a wider product base to our clients." He added, "This will help us to diversify our product portfolio and increase client penetration."
Kwek said BNP Paribas will target a range of clients such as hedge funds, asset managers and proprietary traders at other firms. BNP will start with hedge funds because many of these funds are already clients of its convertible bond arbitrage desk, noted Kwek. The bank will offer these clients plain vanilla options as well as more sophisticated products such as barrier options and down-and-out puts.
In London, BNP Paribas plans to have around six salesmen on this desk, one to two of which will be externally recruited. The firm hopes to have made these hires by the end of the year. The rest will be internal transfers and maintain their current responsibilities. Kwek declined to comment on who would be heading up the desk but confirmed that it would be an internal hire. The desk in Paris is expected to be slightly smaller and will be made up entirely of internal transfers.
