BNP Paribas is restructuring its Swiss arm to focus on wealth management – the exit of an 11-person team of private bankers is a setback.
The Paris-based bank is wielding the ax in Geneva, where it is dramatically reducing its commodities and trade finance activities in Switzerland, as finews.com previously reported. The effort doesn't affect its wealth management arm, where BNP Paribas wants to grow.
The turmoil seems to be affecting its private bank anyway: an 11-person Russian desk team is leaving BNP Paribas, a source familiar with the matter told finews.com. Eight of the bankers, led by 10-year BNP veteran Nonna Oushenina, are headed for Credit Suisse.
Tipped To A Loss
Two more BNP bankers are heading for Goldman Sachs, Gabriel Vaduva and Frederic Justes, the person said. The French bank's Swiss arm swung to a first-half loss of more than 124.6 million Swiss francs ($135.3 million) due to major credit write-downs.
The results comes against the backdrop of a sharp profit decline at the parent bank based in Paris. In Switzerland, where BNP veteran Monique Vialatou has run the bank for the past three years, BNP is planning to cut several hundred of its total 1,400 employees in Geneva, Zurich, and Lugano through next year.
