BNP Paribas Creates Hedge Fund Client Service Function


NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - October 28, 2008) - BNP Paribas is pleased to announce the creation of a global, transversal, multi-asset, hedge fund client service team. The team will be a single point of entry for Hedge Funds for all inquiry, will leverage the bank's capabilities and will focus on operational efficiencies.

The team will be headed globally by John Polivko, based in New York and reporting locally to Jean-Patrick Kaiser, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, and globally to Bernard Gavgani, Equity and Commodity derivatives COO and François Freyeisen, Fixed Income COO.

John recently joined the firm from Merrill Lynch where he was in charge of the client service organization for Prime Brokerage and more recently worked in financing sales. Prior to Merrill Lynch, John spent 7 years as a Managing Director at Bears Stearns in Prime Brokerage.

In addition, we are pleased to announce the appointments of regional managers who will report directly to John Polivko.

Victoria Baker has been named regional head of the Americas and will also be based in New York. Victoria has been with BNP Paribas for ten years and was most recently responsible for Fixed Income client services.

Neil Spice has been appointed regional head of EMEA, based in London. Neil formerly managed the Fixed Income client service team at BNP Paribas in London. Prior to joining BNP Paribas, Neil spent 3 years at BONY and his previous experience includes: Deutsche Bank, Merita Bank and Prudential Bache Forex.

Jacqueline Man becomes regional head of hedge fund client service based in Hong Kong. Jackie was formerly responsible for client services in Asia for SCOPE (Secondary Client Offering Post-Trade, EQD) for BNP Paribas. Jacqueline joined the firm 4 years ago. Prior to BNP Paribas, she spent 7 years at Merrill Lynch in Asia.

Commenting, Talbot Stark, global head of hedge fund relationship management said, "Hedge Funds are a very important client base for BNP Paribas, following the acquisition of Bank of America's Prime Brokerage business as well as the growth of the hedge fund relationship managements team, the creation of this function is another step in better serving those clients."

About BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas (www.bnpparibas.com) is a European leader in global banking and financial services and is one of the 3 strongest banks in the world according to Standard & Poor's. The group is present in over 85 countries, with more than 168,000 employees, including 129,500 in Europe. The group holds key positions in three major segments: Corporate and Investment Banking, Asset Management & Services and Retail Banking. Present throughout Europe in all of its business lines, the bank's two domestic markets in retail banking are France and Italy. BNP Paribas also has a significant presence in the United States and strong positions in Asia and the emerging markets.

About Corporate and Investment Banking at BNP Paribas:

BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment banking division (CIB) has 16,000 employees, deployed in over 53 countries around the world. BNP Paribas CIB excels in three fundamental sectors in particular:

Derivatives -- it is one of the leading global players in rates, credit, forex, commodity and equity derivatives.

Capital markets -- it is amongst the top ten Euro houses for both ECM and DCM (bond issues, securitization, convertibles and shares).

Structured finance -- it is amongst the world leaders for acquisition, export, project and commodity finance.

For further information please visit our website at http://cib.bnpparibas.com/

Contact Information: Press contacts: Edwina Frawley-Gangahar Media Relations New York +212-841-3719 Kerrie McHugh Media Relations New York +212-841-3809

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