Est-ce que tu parles français? Non? Well, that’s OK, because you don’t have to speak French if you want to work for one of the French banks with a presence on Wall Street. And yes, the two biggest – BNP Paribas and Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking (SG CIB) – have both been buoyed by former Rothschild investment banker Emmanuel Macron winning the French presidency. In addition, both have been doing plenty of hiring in New York. Fancy working there?
What businesses are these French banks building up now?
BNP Paribas CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnafe wants to make France’s largest bank one of the top three European players in trading, where 2017 bright spots included equity derivatives and prime services, and corporate banking. In addition, Alain Papiasse, deputy COO of BNP’s CIB, said that increased volatility in rates, currencies and other securities translates into more demand for capital markets, according to Bloomberg.
As for SocGen, despite ongoing disputes with U.S. authorities related to the Libyan Investment Authority, LIBOR and sanctions violations, it has been hiring quantitative research analysts on both sides of the pond. The bank’s investment banking arm posted a stronger-than-expected performance in 2017, including improved equities trading revenue and a “better than industry average” drop in FICC trading revenue, according to the FT.
BNP Paribas and SG CIB have both made hires in New York this year. Aashish Rathi joined BNP Paribas as a director of prime solutions and financing (PS&F) structuring last month. Rathi previously worked for DB in Jacksonville. BNP also hired Jeffrey Siegel as a director of public policy and strategic regulatory analysis from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of International Trade in January.
Meanwhile, SG hiredTim Oeljeschlaeger from J.P. Morgan as a director in the strategic equity transactions group focusing on accelerated share repurchases, call spreads, margin loans and equity offerings and Donna Severino from Credit Suisse as a director of records management.
The moves follow various hire to French banks in the middle and late of 2017. BNP, for example, hired Declan Hanlon from Nomura Securities in May as an MD in credit trading. SocGen hired Mark Bamber from Deutsche as an MD in flow indexation in November.
Both BNP and SocGen declined to comment on their U.S. hiring intentions in 2018.
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