BNP Paribas can thank people doing its most paradisaical jobs
BNP Paribas released its third quarter results today. Pre-tax profits in its corporate and investment bank were up 13% year-on-year for the quarter; the cost income ratio in the unit was 60.8%. Deutsche Bank and Barclays, eat your hearts out.
How was it that BNP Paribas outdid its European rivals? Was it its talented macro traders? No: they had a bad quarter. Was it its new ex-Deutsche Bank prime broking platform? Also no; that had a bad quarter too. Was it all the new people BNP hired last year? Noooope.
Instead, BNP's success was thanks to the people in its securities services team where profits rose 25% year-on-year in Q3 and in global banking, where they were up...90%.
BNP's global banking business covers everything from equity capital markets and debt capital markets to syndicated loans and transaction banking. It was in transaction banking, or the management of corporate treasury payments, that BNP had its especially fine time - transaction banking revenues in EMEA were up nearly 60% this year.
When and if BNP's bankers and traders get paid (or keep their jobs) this year, they might therefore want to thank their colleagues in the securities services and transaction services businesses. These areas are less prestigious, but they can also be ok places to work. Writing on Wall Street Oasis recently, someone declared that jobs in securities services are "paradise." Salaries there are reportedly on a par with M&A and sales and trading, bonuses are only slightly less, and you only work 10-hour days.
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