BNP Paribas’s wealth management team has had a stellar year. In Euromoney’s 2023 private banking awards, it was named Europe’s best private bank and the Middle East’s best private bank. It also won a hatfull of country awards, including best domestic private bank in France and best international private bank in Belgium and in Switzerland.
The eurozone region’s largest wealth management institution by revenues and assets has performed strongly over the past year in all its key European markets.
In Belgium, its private banking team attracted €2.1 billion in net asset inflows in the full year 2022. In France, it generated $6.74 billion of net new money in 2022 and posted a 21.6% year-on-year rise in income attributable to wealth and asset management.
The strength of those markets plus a few others – notably Switzerland and Germany – helped the bank’s global wealth management team post €31.9 billion in total net asset inflows in 2022. Overall assets under management slipped slightly to €1.19 trillion, but in a tough year most of its competition saw assets under management fall faster and harder.
It continues to outpace its chief rivals. BNPP’s sprawling investment and protection services (IPS) division spans four specialized business lines: asset management, private banking for high net-worth clients, insurance and real estate services.
In the first quarter of 2023, IPS generated €19.4 billion in net asset inflows, driven by strong performance from its private bank, with assets under management rising 3.5% to €1.21 trillion at the end of March 2023.
“Europe is our backyard and we know it well,” says BNPP’s wealth management chief executive Vincent Lecomte. “Our group is a leader on the continent. We are growing our business across the region, notably in Germany, where we have launched a successful business catering to ultra-high net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs and leading families.”
There is no one magic ingredient for BNPP but rather several of them. Its universal banking model certainly helps, as does its strong relationship with leading European entrepreneurs with complex wealth management needs and a growing demand among clients for philanthropic advice.
Europe is our backyard and we know it well
Vincent Lecomte
“We offer personalized products and services, and thanks to the group’s distinctive and integrated model, they can benefit from synergies with our corporate and institutional banking, asset management and real estate businesses,” notes Lecomte.
He also points to the rollout last year of the bank’s ‘clover rating’ to all asset classes. This measures the relative sustainability of all financial instruments in every client portfolio, such as bonds, equities and exchange-traded funds, and then aligns them against the individual’s sustainability objectives.
“[It allows] clients to identify and select responsible investments that meet their search for positive impact across their portfolio,” says Lecomte.
