Committed to Clients

Client centric

BNP Paribas CIB's client-centric approach is the principal ingredient to our success. We are here first and foremost to listen to and understand our clients. They are our "raison d'être".

Only then can we analyse their needs, share information with our colleagues and build an adapted and global offer. Clients have been and will continue to be at the very heart of our business model. We have a working structure that lets us know our clients better and serve their best interests, from the ground up.

Discover a significant part of our coverage approach: the role of the Senior Banker.

A typical Senior Banker background

The senior banker is a seasoned banker, who has profound experience in dealing with corporates in a given banking area of expertise. These areas include mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets, debt capital markets and leveraged finance. This past experience enables senior bankers to establish a high level of contact with the key decision makers within their clients’ organization (CEO/CFO).  A senior banker is always abreast of the strategy and future plans of his/her clients. On this basis, the senior banker benefits from a trustful relationship with his/her client whom he knows very well.

This knowledge enables senior bankers to call upon resources within the bank in order to offer comprehensive, precise proposals and ideas to their clients. For the corporate client, the senior banker is the key point-of-contact within the organisation that can coordinate the various departments/areas of expertise world-wide for BNP Paribas. The senior banker's direct access to the general management of the Bank also enables him/her to be able to trigger quick decision-making on very large deals.  The European Core Clients of the Bank are followed by managing directors that are each responsible for a portfolio of 7 to 10 clients.

With over 20 years of experience, Sophie Javary can be cited as one such person. She joined BNP Paribas as a senior banker in early 2011. Sophie began her career as a credit analyst at Bank of America and then moved to Banque Indosuez where she moved to ECM in 1989. She joined Rothschild in 1994 and was appointed a global partner in 2002. She started and led the French arm of ABN AMRO Rothschild, the equity capital markets joint venture between Rothschild and ABN AMRO from 1996 to 2007. From 2008 to 2010, she jointly managed the debt advisory and restructuring team of Rothschild in Paris and co-led the European restructuring practice.

A typical transaction and the role of the Senior Banker

One of  BNP Paribas' largest clients was aiming at increasing the share of its merging markets presence especially in South America, with a clear focus on Brazil. The senior banker who was aware of this strategic objective relayed this information to the Brazilian corporate finance teams who identified three attractive targets in the sector.

These targets were presented to the client and its CFO in meeting organised by the senior banker. As one of the targets was of a size that needed substantial financing to be able to move quickly, the senior banker, in cooperation with the acquisition finance team, was in a position to set up an underwriting of bank debt with a bridge facility for subsequent bond issues and a capital increase.

The senior banker put together a comprehensive offer that convinced the board of the company that this acquisition was the right target, even if relatively expensive, given the expected growth profile of the acquisition. Prior to the acquisition, the senior banker also put together a risk hedging strategy that was devised with the Fixed Income team and made sure that the rating advisory teams were involved to avoid a downgrade of the company. The senior bankers initial input to the idea and his subsequent coordination role were key for the client to achieve its strategic objective and execute it in a swift way.