Following the launch of BNP Paribas's new electronic platform, Smart Derivatives, in Europe at the beginning of June, the French bank is considering options to roll it over in the US market.
"We are studying how to leverage our European platform, taking into account the specific regulatory environment in the US market," Serge Troyanovsky, head of retail structured solutions distribution for North America at BNP Paribas, told SRP. "This has not been deployed yet and we are considering the different options. There is no specific timeframe for this development as we are considering the different requirements of the US market."
The platform, designed to be a "one-stop shop" platform offering a number of services around structured products, is organised in the four modules of marketing, primary trading, secondary trading and post-trade services, and features a wide range of payoff types and over 2,000 underlyings.
Troyanovsky believes this strategic development "will be helpful in strengthening our product offering as it will provide a customised approach".
Cyrille Peponnet, eBusiness project leader at BNP Paribas Equity Derivatives & Commodities, said the implementation of the Smart Derivatives platform came out of the need of the bank's sales teams for a "powerful pricing tool" for more complex products to offer to its clients.
"It was a natural step for us as we have been testing these tools internally for years," he said. "The platform was deployed about a year ago to our wealth management arm and they have provided us with invaluable feedback to improve and address any particular needs."
The platform is now live in a number of European countries including Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, France and the UK, but the bank is also trying to make inroads in the US.
"We are developing these tools to provide a more comprehensive service to our clients so that instead of accessing our prices on a manual basis, they will be able to access them electronically," added Troyanovsky. "In the US there are restrictions in relation to how these tools can be marketed to the end client, so at this stage this is only being developed to serve sophisticated institutional investors."
The platform is also live in Canada's offshore space, and it has been rolled in Asia with some specific features to comply with local guidelines.
Smart Derivatives, said Peponnet, is like no other trading platform. "For complex products and illiquid underlyings we have developed online workshops and a facility for investors to request extra features and specific pricing from our sales team without the need to go back to emails or phone calls. Everything is interactive within the platform. Everything is interactive within the platform."