BNP Paribas Securities Services (BNP2S) is aiming to double Portuguese assets under custody, up from 14 billion today.
“We’ve seen our competitors lose a lot of credibility and loans due to the financial crisis, which means that many clients come to us due to our relative solidity, which has obviously been the case in Portugal,” Fabrice Segui, head of BNP2S Portugal, told Reuters.
Speaking to GlobalCustodian.com, Charles Cock, global head of client development at BNP2S, says We have seen a clear flight to quality. We have seen an acceleration of our growth in the Portuguese market, but also in markets like Greece in Italy. [Here] cross border investors, and I would argue more precisely global custodians acting on behalf of cross border investors, want to speak to their fiduciary responsibility and move their assets to more credit worthy institutions, and we rank pretty high in that respect.
BNP2S also has an operational centre in Lisbon, employing around 400 staff, which acts as a dual office for the firms Euronext operations.
Across the board one of our core ambitions is to be the single largest settlement and custody bank in any market within Europe, says Cock. According to Cock, BNP Paribas is already the largest settlement bank in France, Belgium, Holland, Italy and Spain.
Banco Esprito Santo SA, Banco Santander de Negcios Portugal, Citigroup and Millennium BCP all compete with BNP2S in Portugal.
In a recent management restructuring, BNP2S placed Spain, Portugal and Latin America as one region, managed by Alvaro Camunas.
Giles TurnerNews Editor