BNP Paribas appoints Joris Dierckx as Korea country head

BNP Paribas has appointed Joris Dierckx as country head for Korea and general manager of its Seoul branch, the French bank said on Friday.

He will replace Philippe Reynieix, who has been with BNP in Korea for 10 years. Reynieix will return to France to take up an unspecified role.

Dierckx has been the bank’s Greece country head since 2010. He started his career in Asia back in 2001 at Fortis Bank, where he held various management positions in Singapore and Tokyo in the area of export and project finance. He was subsequently country manager for Japan as well as acting head of merchant banking in Asia.

His new position is effective from May 14, subject to the regulatory process.

Meanwhile, Hyungho Choi remains as chief executive of BNP’s securities arm in Korea, in charge of expanding the bank’s global equities and commodity derivatives, debt capital markets and corporate finance platforms in the country.

Both Dierckx and Choi report directly to Eric Raynaud, Asia-Pacific CEO for the BNP group.

“[Dierckx’s] appointment underscores the Bank’s commitment for the country. Going forward, [he] will work closely with the senior management team in Seoul. They have been developing the bank’s activities in Korea very successfully over the last few years, under the leadership of [Reynieix],” said Raynaud in a statement.

“Korea is a country with strong market dynamics, including a fast growing financial sector with increasingly liberalised capital markets and a solid funds management industry,” he added.

BNP has been in Korea for more than 35 years and he stressed that the bank is committed to the country for the long term.

“Apart from our 10-year solid partnership with Shinhan Financial Group, we also have a strong client franchise in Korea with diversified product and service platforms, including an OTC derivatives licence which we’ve secured recently. Meanwhile, we are also stepping up our capabilities in cash management and trade finance to better service multinational corporation clients in Korea, as well as Korean clients throughout the BNP Paribas global network,” he said.

BNP has a presence in 80 countries and nearly 200,000 employees, with about three-quarters of them based in Europe.