BNP Paribas' London rates team has been afflicted by various departures
It wasn't that long ago that BNP Paribas' macro sales and trading business was thriving. In 2024, however, G10 rates trading revenues have fallen nearly 20% according to analysis by BCG, and BNP's macro traders have lost their lustre. The change appears to have triggered a number of exits that go beyond last month's sudden disappearance of Francisco Oliveira.
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Sources at BNP say the team has also lost at least three other senior people from the rates team in London. They include Adrien Averre, a former New York based head of rates who was latterly executive office for the team in London, Joe Squires, the head of DM rates sales in New York, and Courtenay Watson, a flow rates trader in London who's left for Citi despite only being promoted to MD last year.
At the same time, Marc Pelet, BNP's very liked head of macro trading in London, is understood to have migrated into a new role working in asset and liability management in Paris.
BNP has also made operational cuts to its markets team. - Adrian Lim, the equally popular global COO for global markets sales and trading assistants is understood to have left too.
BNP declined to comment on the moves. The bank appears to be cutting costs after its fixed income sales and trading revenues fell 7% year-on-year in the second quarter. - Oliveira's exit was part of a rationalisation of the fixed income business, which saw his departure and the retention of his former co-head, Arne Groes.
Sources at BNP pointed to various departures from the rates team in the past, including the likes of Adrian Boehler, who's now at UBS and who formerly ran rates with Oliveira, who one insider describes as "more of a stick than a carrot guy." "BNP has done a good job of providing other banks with excellent talent," they observe.
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