BNP Paribas today announced it has been named “World’s Best Bank for Corporates” for 2017 by Euromoney, the leading financial publication. The global accolade was one of six awards won in total by BNP Paribas, which also included the regional category “Best Digital Bank in Western Europe”.
Overall, BNP Paribas won the following awards:
- World’s Best Bank for Corporates
- Best Digital Bank in Western Europe
- Best Investment Bank in Belgium
- Best Bank in France
- Best Bank in Kosovo
- Best Bank in Luxembourg
For almost 50 years, Euromoney has been the leading publication for covering the growth of international finance. Over the past 12 months its coverage has included interviews with close to 100 bank CEOs, ministers of finance and central bank governors around the world. The awards were established in 1992 and were the first of their kind in the global banking industry. This year Euromoney received almost 1,500 submissions from banks in an awards programme that covers 20 global awards, more than 50 regional awards, and best bank awards in close to 100 countries.
Clive Horwood, Editor, Euromoney said:
“While many national champions retrench to their home markets, BNP Paribas is one of the few firms actively broadening its reach into new markets and new clients. Its profile as one of the few truly global corporate banks, alongside its commitment to digital solutions – including co-development with its corporate clients – is proving more suited than ever to the environment in which it operates.”
Commenting on winning “World’s Best Bank for Corporates”, Yann Gerardin, Head of Corporate and Institutional Banking, BNP Paribas, said: “The last 12 months have seen us accelerate the transformation of our business, the aim being to meet more needs, of more clients, more effectively. Euromoney’s acknowledgement of our progress is encouraging and a function of three factors: the support of the entire BNP Paribas Group; the commitment of our teams; and the trust our clients continue to show in us. This award – alongside the other five we have won – is recognition of their contribution, and my sincere thanks go to all.”
Press contacts
Alexandra Umpleby +44 20 75 95 2436 alexandra.umpleby@uk.bnpparibas.com
Andrew Achimu +44 20 75 95 6647 andrew.achimu@uk.bnpparibas.com
Sarisher Mann +44 20 75 95 8150 sarisher.mann@uk.bnpparibas.com
BNP Paribas was featured in an article by Supply Chain Navigator about the economics of Corporate Social Responsibility.
By Supply Chain Navigator
Finance programs reward supplier CSR efforts
In 2010, athletic footwear and apparel manufacturer PUMA set out to monetize the “true costs” of its reliance on nature as a source of critical supplies, such as fresh water, clean air, healthy biodiversity and productive land. The goal, Executive Chairman of PUMA SE Jochen Zeitz reported at the time, was to determine “if our planet was a business, how much would it ask to be paid for the services it provides to a company to operate.” Unable to find a tool to measure this cost, PUMA devised a unique environmental profit and loss (E P&L) accounting framework.
It turns out, the precise amount owed to Mother Earth was less significant than the realization of just how little direct control PUMA had over the brand’s overall environmental impact. The E P&L analysis revealed that PUMA’s core operations – offices, warehouses and stores – accounted for only six percent of its environmental valuation. The remaining 94 percent resided within its extended supply chain, with 85 percent occurring in tiers two through four – segments that PUMA, like many other large companies, tended to under scrutinize.
“Analysis revealed that PUMA’s core operations – offices, warehouses and stores – accounted for only six percent of its environmental valuation. The remaining 94 percent resided within its extended supply chain.”
As part of its sustainability targets for 2020, PUMA committed to keeping closer tabs on social and environmental matters across its “full supply chain.” But the company’s stewardship was hampered by a limited ability to influence the environmental conservation and social responsibility activity of hundreds of small and medium enterprises within the extended, increasingly global, supply chain.
Corporate sustainability and responsibility (CSR) ratings and supplier scorecards have proven moderately successful for many organizations, but motivation is not the biggest compliance obstacle for most small businesses; available resources are. How much can a specialty textile maker in India, or a tin smelter in Brazil, afford to invest in social and environmental programs when they are struggling to make ends meet and under pressure to upgrade equipment and operations to meet stringent productivity and quality standards of their large multinational customers?
Financial institutions like BNP Paribas in Europe and International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, recognized this challenge and have each developed innovative supply chain finance solutions that offer incentives for suppliers to improve environmental, health, safety and humanitarian standards. These kinds of programs tie lending terms not only to the buyer’s credit but also to supplier’s adherence to the buyer’s CSR guidelines.
Innovative supply chain finance programs tie lending terms not only to the buyer’s credit, but also to supplier’s adherence to the buyer’s CSR guidelines.
PUMA is one of the first multinational organizations to implement a CSR-driven financing approach. The program offers tiered pricing of short-term working capital, with lower costs for those suppliers that achieve higher scores in its sustainability rating system. Levi-Strauss & Co. took part in a similar program with IFC in 2014.
Since its launch, PUMA reports that 15 percent of its suppliers have participated in the program, providing more than $100 million in financing. PUMA’s Head of Corporate Sustainability, Stefan Seidel, noted, in a blog on the company’s website, that the program is a way for companies like PUMA to demonstrate their commitment to not only “doing less bad,” but “doing more good.”
Banks like BNP Paribas have helped reduce fiscal sustainability risk among extended supply chains by offering supplier finance programs that leverage the financial strength of the buyer to give cash-strapped suppliers access to affordable financing. Adding an environmental and social sustainability component to these programs to mitigate CSR risk is the logical next step, according to Suresh Subramanian, managing director, head of trade and treasury solutions, Americas, BNP Paribas. Such programs are a natural fit for BNP, added Julian Oldale, head of product, innovation and business performance, trade and treasury solutions, Americas for BNP Paribas. “We have a strong CSR policy in place. Thus, it is important to us that we finance in a sustainable fashion.”
“The program is a way for companies like PUMA to demonstrate their commitment to not only ‘doing less bad,’ but ‘doing more good.’”
Although there are not many offerings currently in the market that tie supply chain finance and CSR, Subramanian expects the concept to gain momentum, especially since social media forces transparency throughout the supply chain. “Consumers are holding corporates accountable,” Subramanian said.
BNP is also exploring other opportunities with a sustainability angle, including green energy focused supply chain programs and a wind energy inventory program. “We want to focus more on sustainable ventures because it is the right thing to do and it makes business sense,” Subramanian concluded. “When business interests align with doing the right thing, results are more readily achievable.”
BNP Paribas was featured in GT News, where our Head of Product Management Services Marlene Lieberman writes about SWIFT’s global payment initiative.
By Marlene Lieberman
Making international wire payments has long been viewed by corporates as a necessary evil. From the perspective of originators, as well as beneficiaries, cross-border payment processing has been something of a “black box” – with payments going in, but no certainty on when they would be posted in the beneficiary’s account, how much would be deducted in fees along the way by intermediary banks, or if remittance information would be delivered intact.
Frustration with this highly inefficient system and the desire by corporate treasury professionals to find a faster, more transparent process, was the impetus behind the development of SWIFT’s global payment innovation (gpi) initiative.
How it all began
Starting in 2015, SWIFT launched a pilot programme called gpi for global payments innovation to focus on improving the business-to-business (B2B) payments experience. gpi is based on a multilateral service level agreement (SLA) across banks, providing a common standard for processing cross-border payments. The goal of gpi was to significantly improve the customer experience by increasing the speed, transparency and tracking of international payments.
To date, more than 90 leading banks have signed up for the SLA. As the programme has gone live, thousands of transactions every day are utilising this new processing solution. The gpi network is more than SWIFT as local market infrastructures, such as Fed and the Clearing House Interbank Payments System (CHIPS) in the US, are also participants.
Tracking payments from end-to-end
One of the key features of gpi is the Tracker, a database in the cloud which collects real-time, end-to-end views on payment status. With the Tracker, banks can provide corporates with updates on the status of the payments and the fees which may be deducted by intermediary banks as the payment gets processed through the system. As a result of this advanced functionality, treasurers can receive confirmations when payments have been credited to a beneficiary account. With the participation of Fed and CHIPS in the US the Tracker will include updates from the final depository banks even if they’re not SWIFT members.
The immediate benefits of gpi
Another value provided by gpi is the commitment to deliver the remittance detail to the ultimate beneficiary to facilitate corporates’ reconcilement processes.
Among the many advantages of gpi is that its improvements have been built into the existing payments infrastructure and do not require a whole new model – practically speaking, avoiding many of the challenges associated with launching new processes. This is a major plus for corporates, as well as banks, which are looking for cutting-edge solutions that don’t require reinventing the wheel.
SWIFT’s gpi is already delivering significant and immediate benefits for corporate treasurers. This new payment model is enabling same-day-use of funds, posting payments to beneficiary accounts on the day of origination, within the timezone of the receiving gpi member.
One of the most important benefits of gpi is transparency of fees. Treasurers will finally have insight into any fees deducted from payments by intermediary banks and information on the value of the credit posted to the beneficiary’s account. gpi’s Tracker leverages the SWIFT database, providing corporates with status updates as payments move through the process, indicating precisely where the payment is at any given time as they are processed by gpi banks. In addition, the delivery of unaltered remittance information to the beneficiary bank allows beneficiaries to reconcile credits to their accounts receivables more quickly and easily.
More advances are in the works
gpi sets the foundation for banks to partner with the emerging financial technology (fintech) industry to bring new services and functionality to international payments.
SWIFT gpi will also improve handling of cross-border payments by allowing banks to stop payment, no matter where it is in the correspondent banking chain. It will also offer an international payment assistant to increase the straight-through-processing rate of cross-border payments at origination. The final phase of gpi is expected to explore blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT) for real-time nostro account reconciliation.
Doing our part to support clients
Sometimes taking small steps is the best approach to a big problem. BNP Paribas believes the gpi strategy of incremental and continuous improvement is a realistic means for improving a system that includes tens of thousands of originators and thousands of banks.
In keeping with overall gpi strategy the bank will provide gpi services without requiring our clients to make infrastructure changes on their systems. Clients won’t need to make changes to their platforms or payment files as BNP Paribas will automatically originate payments as gpi payments whenever possible.
This approach fits perfectly with the bank’s commitment to continuous improvement of its service offering through innovation. Beginning in November 2017, the bank plans to offer gpi origination for euros (EUR), US dollars (USD) and other currencies in multiple hubs in Europe. The objective is to expand our gpi capabilities to all our regions. By being an early adopter of gpi BNP Paribas will provide our corporate clients with access to information on their SWIFT activity from payment initiation, routing through intermediary banks and posting at the ultimate beneficiary banks. We see significant interest by the big banks in all the markets we operate in and especially by the largest money centre banks in the US. We believe the combination of demand from corporates and investment by the biggest banks in global payments will push the necessary critical mass to enable gpi to become a standard – and expected – service.
At present, BNP Paribas is serving as a trusted advisor and educating clients about gpi and its many benefits.
BNP Paribas today announced a settlement with the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) relating to its investigations into past misconduct in BNP Paribas’ foreign exchange business.
Under this settlement, BNP Paribas will pay a fine of USD 350 million (approximately 310 million euros) which will be covered by existing provisions.
In reaching this settlement, the DFS acknowledged the Group wide remediation initiatives and the full cooperation of BNP Paribas in the investigation.
The conduct which led to this settlement occurred during the period from 2007 to 2013. Since this time, BNP Paribas has proactively implemented extensive measures to strengthen its systems of control and compliance. The Group has increased resources and staff dedicated to these functions, conducted extensive staff training and launched a new Code of Conduct which applies to all staff.
BNP Paribas deeply regrets the past misconduct which led to this settlement, which was a clear breach of the high standards on which the Group operates.
Conducting its business in a responsible and ethical manner is a cornerstone of BNP Paribas’ values and the Group will continue to make improvements to ensure that it delivers on its responsibilities to all its stakeholders.
About BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas is a leading bank in Europe with an international reach. It has a presence in 74 countries, with more than 192,000 employees, including more than 146,000 in Europe. The Group has key positions in its three main activities: Domestic Markets and International Financial Services (whose retail-banking networks and financial services are covered by Retail Banking & Services) and Corporate & Institutional Banking, which serves two client franchises: corporate clients and institutional investors. The Group helps all its clients (individuals, community associations, entrepreneurs, SMEs, corporates and institutional clients) to realise their projects through solutions spanning financing, investment, savings and protection insurance.
In Europe, the Group has four domestic markets (Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg) and BNP Paribas Personal Finance is the European leader in consumer lending.
BNP Paribas is rolling out its integrated retail-banking model in Mediterranean countries, in Turkey, in Eastern Europe and a large network in the western part of the United States. In its Corporate & Institutional Banking and International Financial Services activities, BNP Paribas also enjoys top positions in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas as well as a solid and fast-growing business in Asia-Pacific.
Press Contacts
Bertrand Cizeau +33 1 42 98 33 53
Julia Boyce +33 1 43 16 82 04
Coralie France-Savin + 33 1 40 14 94 89
Sarah Worsley +33 1 40 14 65 14
Alexandra Umpleby +44 20 75 95 2436
Cesaltine Gregorio +1 212 841 3719
In 2015, the Heritage and Historical Archives Department of BNP Paribas has launched their website, Well of History, that brings together hundreds of documents, films, annual reports, posters, and thematic articles about the history of the Group.
The second episode of the U.S. saga has just been published, providing an overview of our history in the United States of America: “The French American Banking Corporation, a French bank in America“.
“After opening its first office in San Francisco in 1877, the Comptoir national d’escompte de Paris wanted to expand its presence in the United States. The goal became a reality in 1919 with the founding of the French American Banking Corporation (FABC).”
You can also read the first episode that was about the origins of the BNP Paribas story in the US.
The results of the 2016 Global Custodian Agent Banks in Major Markets survey have been published and, for the second year in a row, BNP Paribas has received the highest local market scores in the U.S.
The survey asks network managers and operations executives from leading global custodians, correspondent banks, brokers and infrastructure providers to evaluate the performance of their subcustodian agents in various markets.
BNP Paribas was rated in six categories (Settlement, Asset Servicing, Relationship & Client Service, Technology, Ancillary Services and Value Delivered), achieving a score of 6 and above (out of 7) in every category – the only bank surveyed to have scores above 6.
Notably, the very highest rating for BNP Paribas was in the category of Relationship and Client Service. We are particularly proud of this because it speaks to our dedication to providing the best experience to our clients.
Learn more about the results by watching the video below.
BNP Paribas places digital at the heart of its business model and strives to continuously improve the digital banking experience for its clients. Today the bank confirms that it has joined R3’s distributed ledger initiative, which aims to establish whether an industry standard can be developed around blockchain technology.
Blockchain technology could be applied to simplify processes in the banking sector particularly within transaction banking, innovative payments, or post-trade activities.
Philippe Denis, responsible for Blockchain at BNP Paribas’ CIB business said: “Blockchain has the potential to transform certain processes in the banking sector and improve the way we interact with clients. Within our corporate and institutional bank, we have been looking at Blockchain since 2011, participating in a number of think-tank and industry initiatives. In 2014, we held a business hackathon to better understand the technology and assess its potential. So while it is still a nascent technology, we firmly believe it is worth exploring, and if it proves to be scalable, could benefit the industry as well as our clients.”
Follow us on Twitter : @BNPPamericas
Jean-Yves Fillion, CEO of BNP Paribas North America and Head of the Americas, CIB, appeared on “Closing Bell with Liz Claman” on Fox Business, Friday, July 31.
Following the bank’s second quarter earnings announcement, Jean-Yves discussed the CIB Americas platform and the Bank’s ambitions for the region.
- Read the press release “BNP Paribas Group: Results as at 30 June 2015”
- View the infographic “Second Quarter 2015 Results”
Follow us on Twitter : @BNPPamericas
BNP Paribas is partnering simultaneously and at an international level with Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter. With four members of the Group Executive Committee involved in the initiative, BNP Paribas is establishing strategic management of its presence on digital media, while opening up to new opportunities for cooperation and innovation in terms of communications, marketing and customer relations.
“BNP Paribas already has more than 500 million digital interactions with its clients per year, making it a leading digital player. The worldwide partnerships signed with each of these four global digital leaders, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter, will help us strengthen our relationship with our clients and prospects on these platforms. It will also galvanise our capacity for innovation so we can offer services that are increasingly tailored to meet their needs,” said Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, Director and Chief Executive Officer of BNP Paribas.
The relationship-based model has been revolutionised by mobile devices, which have become the main tool used by banking clients to contact their advisor or manage their accounts. Improving the digital banking experience for clients is therefore a key development priority for BNP Paribas. The company wants to give them both choice and flexibility of use through the new ways of interacting offered by social networks, new mobile services, simplified processes, and more.
These partnerships actively work toward this goal by reinforcing the cooperation between the bank and the four digital giants. This cooperation relies on a global governance which will be built around a shared roadmap. Regular meetings between the initiative’s sponsors at these four companies and at the bank will ensure the partnerships run smoothly. These alliances will speed up the bank’s digital transformation, making it possible to work together to analyse and manage new business opportunities.
The cooperative agreement with Google was signed by Thierry Laborde, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Head of Domestic Markets at BNP Paribas, and Nick Leeder, President of EMEA Business and Operations at Google.
For BNP Paribas, its collaboration with Google is an opportunity to improve the accessibility of our services for the greatest number of people, as well as to adapt our products based on the needs of our clients. This will make it possible for the bank’s teams to improve their understanding of current practices, as well as their technical expertise and command of new communication formats suited to mobile technologies. As such, mobile already accounts for nearly 15% of the Group’s investment with Google.
BNP Paribas was the first bank to launch a customer service on Google+ in 2013. Each year, more than 110 million requests are carried out for BNP Paribas brands. At present, the Group’s YouTube channels have tallied more than 28 million views, with 5 million just for its Cetelem channel in France.
The collaboration agreement with Twitter, is signed by Marie Claire Capobianco, Head of Retail Banking France at BNP Paribas and Jean-Philippe Maheu, Vice President Brands & Agencies Twitter.
This collaboration agreement will support the digitisation of BNP Paribas’ business and open up new horizons, especially in the use of public Twitter data.
Since it launched its first Twitter account in 2009, BNP Paribas has been a pioneer in the use of the platform in France. It was the first French bank to open a dedicated customer service on Twitter, now offering an average response time of 2 minutes.
BNP Paribas also successfully participated in #YourJob on February 24, the first day dedicated to talent recruitment on Twitter, as part of its strategy to recruit young talents.
On top of its day to day community management efforts (@WeAreTennisfr or @WeLoveCinemafr), BNP Paribas has developed new services tailored to the real-time and global nature of Twitter, such as #FilDesExpertsBourse (launched in April 2014) that gathers six finance experts to decipher daily economic and financial news, or the #MaPubIci program, which offers Twitter advertising credits to a selection of French start-ups to raise awareness on their project in France and abroad.
The cooperative agreement with Facebook was signed by Max Jadot, Chief Executive Officer of BNP Paribas Fortis.
This will enable the Group to strengthen its expertise in digital, social and mobile and to benefit from an international communication platform with 1.44 billion active users. This collaboration is a chance to seize social business opportunities by following the lead of subsidiaries such as TEB in Turkey, which uses Facebook for co-creation of campaigns, getting customer insights, sales, acquisition, real time marketing and 7/24 customer service. Facebook is also a fantastic forum for intensifying our audiences’ engagement with the bank’s brand platforms (especially tennis, movies and innovation).
BNP Paribas was the first bank to launch a customer service on Facebook in 2009.
BNP Paribas currently has 3.6 million fans on Facebook. Through We are Tennis, BNP Paribas runs the leading tennis-focused community on Facebook, with 1.1 million fans worldwide.
The cooperative agreement with LinkedIn was signed by Yves Martrenchar, Group Head of Human Resources, and Pierre Berlin, Senior Director of Sales EMEA, Talent Solutions at LinkedIn.
For BNP Paribas, this collaboration with LinkedIn enables the Group to extend beyond LinkedIn Talent Solutions, (which it uses to recruit talent and promote its employer brand) and to accelerate its B2B business by adopting the two other key LinkedIn solutions: LinkedIn Marketing Solutions and LinkedIn Sales Solutions. From a marketing standpoint, BNP Paribas will be able to reach and nurture B2B targets and build strong engagement with its clients on LinkedIn’s professional network. From a sales standpoint, the bank will be able to enable its sales teams to leverage ‘social selling’ as a new way to reach prospects and clients. BNP Paribas’ LinkedIn pages have more than 430,000 followers.
These partnerships are part of BNP Paribas’ open innovation ecosystem. Its vision involves relying on a strategy of partnering with all of the stakeholders in the digital world, whether they are giants of the sector, FinTech developers or startups. Although the partnerships signed today mark a major step in accelerating BNP Paribas’ digital transformation, the startup houses have existed since 2012. In addition, last June the bank launched the first international Hackathon to take place in five countries at once.
Technology is central to the Group’s development plan and supports a strong conviction: that digital transformation will be of structural importance to the bank’s future. This has resulted in accelerated investment in this area, and especially in revolutionizing customer relations. The main challenge is offering customers a digital banking experience with all of the choice and flexibility that implies, while ensuring their transactions and data remain secure.
BNP Paribas has a presence in 75 countries with more than 185,000 employees, including 145,000 in Europe. It ranks highly in its two core activities: Retail Banking & Services (comprised of Domestic Markets and International Financial Services) and Corporate & Institutional Banking. In Europe, the Group has four domestic markets (Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg) and BNP Paribas Personal Finance is the leader in consumer lending. BNP Paribas is rolling out its integrated retail banking model across Mediterranean basin countries, in Turkey, in Eastern Europe and a large network in the western part of the United States. In its Corporate & Institutional Banking and International Financial Services activities, BNP Paribas also enjoys top positions in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas and solid and fast-growing businesses in Asia-Pacific.
Follow us on Twitter : @BNPPamericas
A group of 24 women leading international fast-growing businesses in Europe, Asia and the US will attend this exclusive program sponsored by BNP Paribas Wealth Management on the Stanford Campus in California.
Committed to supporting female entrepreneurship, BNP Paribas Wealth Management brings together a talented group of 24 women entrepreneurs from Belgium, France, Italy, China, Hong-Kong, Singapore and the United States. Over the course of this week-long program at Stanford Graduate School of Business, participants attend a wide-range of classes led by Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty members on the Palo Alto campus.
The curriculum, which has been tailored to meet the needs of these highly accomplished businesswomen, offers a unique mix of knowledge, skills acquisition and development. In addition to providing personal and professional development, the Executive Program for Women provides an unparalleled opportunity for cross border discussion and global networking.
Sofia Merlo, Co-CEO of BNP Paribas Wealth Management, comments: “This innovative program with the prestigious Stanford Campus illustrates BNP Paribas Wealth Management commitment to promoting women entrepreneurship.”
The courses that will be attended by the women over this week-long program will be taught by recognized experts in strategic leadership, business synergies and opportunities. Their ultimate goal along is to facilitate the acquisition of efficient management practices and to identify external growth opportunities.
Created with the support of the mentoring association WBMI (Women Business Mentoring Initiative), it is fully aligned with the other initiatives supported by the private bank – Women Equity for Growth and the Global Entrepreneurialism Report.
About BNP Paribas Wealth Management
BNP Paribas Wealth Management is a leading global private bank and #1 Private Bank in the Eurozone. Present in some 30 countries and in every major financial center, over 6,300 professionals, provide a private investor clientele with solutions for optimizing and managing their assets. The bank has €332 billion worth of assets under management (as at end March 2015)