Best Private Bank FX Advisory
BNP Paribas Wealth Management
Best Private Bank – FX Advisory
Shafali Sachdev
head of FX Advisory, Asia, BNP Paribas Wealth Management
“We are very honoured to be named the Best Private Bank – FX Advisory by Asian Private Banker. In a post-pandemic 2021, as FX volatility dropped, we needed to refocus our FX advisory business to ensure that we had a deep understanding of clients’ overall portfolio needs, and to find innovative and impactful answers for these.
Our customised solutions, our investments in real-time technology, the scaling of our advisory services, and our focus on digitisation all meant that we were able to engage with clients in ways that most added value to them. We are grateful to our clients for their enthusiastic response and support for our approach.”
Winners rationale
Last year presented a dilemma for the FX advisory desks of private banks across the region. With the coronavirus-induced volatility in currency markets in 2020 largely dissipating in 2021, how were PBs to generate interest in the asset class when markets remained stagnant?
BNP Paribas Wealth Management (BNP Paribas WM) was one bank that found a solution to this conundrum. By responding with a suite of new products and strategies designed to address client portfolio-level needs and to mitigate the steady fall in the volatility, the bank was able to deliver a chunky boost in revenue and trading volumes.
Among the innovative solutions BNP Paribas WM introduced to clients in 2021 were some that took advantage of path dependency and market correlations to develop structures that more than compensated for the decline in volatility, helping clients to hedge more effectively while enhancing profitability on their trades.
In addition, BNP Paribas WM built out its capabilities in commodities trading markets to capitalise on its view that the reflation of the global economy following COVID-19 would lead to increased demand for metals such as copper, nickel, zinc, lead and gold.
During this period, BNP Paribas WM took the opportunity to focus on upskilling its relationship managers and boosting digital capabilities. Following extensive training programmes, RMs and investment counsellors in the region are now able to directly execute and hedge FX trades live without having to call the FX desk. Within seconds, RMs can access live pricings on FX vanilla options, exotic options and structured products following digital enhancements designed to accommodate a hybrid remote work/work from the office model.
The result of all of these initiatives was an industry-leading hit rate in terms of the more than 200 trades proposed to clients in 2021 and a leap in FX trading desk revenues in the region during a time when major currency markets were largely static. Much of that top-line growth was driven by the sale of value-added structures, which gained increasing prominence with clients as 2021 wore on.
For the reasons above, BNP Paribas WM is Asian Private Banker’s Best Private Bank – FX Advisory for 2021.
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