BNP Paribas Hires Fred Fiddle to Grow Equity Linked Business

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Jul 25, 2011) - BNP Paribas today announced the hiring of Fred Fiddle to lead the bank's Strategic Equity and Convertible Origination business in the Americas. In this newly created position, Fred will help lead BNP Paribas' efforts to grow the Americas convertible origination and strategic equity businesses. Fred will be based in New York and report to Pierre Lapomme, Head of Equity Capital Markets, Americas and to Fabrice Hugon, Head of Structured Equity Sales, Americas.

"Fred is very well known by issuers and investors alike and his hiring demonstrates the continued development of BNP Paribas' Americas' capital markets business," commented Lapomme. "We have a very strong leadership in Europe and expect to make great strides stateside this year. Fred will be a valuable asset in the build-out of our global Convertible franchise, enhancing and leveraging our top tier U.S. Convertible Securities platform."

BNP Paribas' growth in the Convertibles business will be aided by the bank's strong equity platform, newly global prime brokerage platform, its position as a top 10 U.S. lender and its strong Fixed Income capabilities.

BNP Paribas is a leading originator and market maker in the Convertible Securities business in Europe. BNP Paribas ranked most active book runner for the last several years and was named EMEA Convertible Bond House of the Year in 2010 by International Financing Review.

"Fred's hire will strengthen BNP Paribas' corporate derivatives and equity capital markets capabilities, especially our global convertibles capabilities," added Hugon. "The synergies of these businesses in the U.S. will help facilitate significant growth for the bank as we aim to be a top provider of liquidity, value-added trade ideas and customer service in the US Convertible market."

Before joining BNP Paribas, Fred had a 23 year career with Merrill Lynch & Co. where he was Head of Equity Linked Origination for the Americas from 2001 -2009, after managing global Equity Linked Sales and Trading.

BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking
BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking employs around 20,000 people in over 50 countries and services 14,000 corporate and institutional clients worldwide.

BNP Paribas CIB excels in:
Derivatives -- where it is one of the leading global players in rates, credit, forex, commodity and equity derivatives
Capital markets -- where it is one of the top European houses in both ECM and DCM (bond, securitization, convertibles and equity issuance)
Structured finance -- where it is amongst the leaders in acquisition, export, project, energy and commodity finance globally
www.cib.bnpparibas.com

About BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas (www.bnpparibas.com) is one of the strongest banks in the world*. The Group has a presence in more than 80 countries and more than 200,000 employees, including more than 160,000 in Europe. It ranks highly in its three core activities: Retail Banking, Investment Solutions and Corporate & Investment 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 the Europe-Mediterranean zone and boasts a large network in the western part of the United States. In its Corporate & Investment Banking and Investment Solutions activities, BNP Paribas also enjoys top positions in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas and solid and fast-growing businesses in Asia.

*Rated AA by Standard & Poor's i.e. 3rd rating level on a scale of 22.