Following the acquisition of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Switzerland’s structured products and retail investor equity derivatives (IP&ED) business, the French bank became a fully active issuer in the Swiss retail structured products market and joined the Swiss Structured Products Association (SSPA) as a new active member. SRP spoke to Florian Stasch (pictured), head of sales and marketing exchange-traded solutions at BNP Paribas Switzerland, who reports to Thibault Gobert, Europe head of sales, retail structured products, in Paris, and Daniel Andres, head of fixed income derivatives/private banks & distributors, in Zurich, at a country level.
What did the RBS’s structured products business add to BNP Paribas in Switzerland?
Following the transfer of certain parts of RBS’s IP&ED business to BNP Paribas the exchange-listed business was added to the existing non-listed structured products offering. This will allow us to be an active player in that space. The process has been similar in other countries where we did not have a presence in the listed market.
Were there any issues in the process of integration of the RBS listed business?
We had to take over the market-making and transfer the services surrounding the business. At the same time we had to make sure that the issuance process can continue after the transfer. It was a challenging time but overall we managed to stick to the timetable. Local expertise from RBS and SIX Swiss Exchange together with BNP Paribas’s experience in connecting new markets were essential during the process.
The integration was finished successfully and all systems were up and running from day one on. As well from day one on we were in a position to issue own listed structured products. We are now looking forward to capitalise on the efforts made.
Did the whole team from RBS transfer to BNP Paribas?
BNP Paribas already has a strong presence in the unlisted structured products business in Switzerland. The listed structured products business is new to the Swiss offering and will be built up on the back of the acquisition from RBS. So yes, the Swiss exchange-traded Products team moved to BNP Paribas.
What are the challenges in Switzerland for a non-Swiss bank?
Founded in 1872 BNP Paribas (Suisse) SA is the oldest foreign bank in Switzerland and among the largest foreign banks in the country. We have a strong operation in this country but we need to communicate the new addition and make people aware of our offering.
Since BNP Paribas was not active in the listed business before, we had to build a lot of things from scratch like the connection of Six Swiss Exchange to our infrastructure, our Swiss issuance programme and a number of other market-specific set-up elements that were required in order to take over the business from RBS and in order to start issuing own products. We are already live but we continue to work on automating certain processes.
How important is the bank’s existing structured products platform to set a strong footprint in the listed space?
BNP Paribas is already very strong in the listed structured products business, which we call exchange-traded solutions. Thanks to the deal with RBS we strengthened our position in countries where we already had a presence and added new markets where we did not have a presence before, like Switzerland. The existing exchange-traded solutions platform is the foundation for the addition of new markets. However every market is different. That is why certain elements needed to be built from scratch or adapted to Swiss market specifics.
What kind of products is BNP Paribas going to focus on?
We will continue to offer products and services investors were accustomed to receive and we will offer new products and services. The RBS platform was built on the back of the ABN AMRO acquisition which is known for its Mini-Future range. The team that launched the Mini-Futures range is now at BNP Paribas. The bank is already strong in the leveraged product space. So, it is only natural to continue the Mini-Future business.
What are your short-term goals?
We will further develop the Swiss exchange-traded solutions platform. At the same time we will continue to serve investors with new products and services. The focus has to be on building a sound business that grows organically and the best way to do this is by offering added value to investors. Structured products remain an important instrument to add value to investors, for achieving yield or to shape investments towards specific risk-return profiles.
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