BNP Paribas named Paul Yang as its regional head for Greater China, a newly created position as the French bank looks to capture opportunities as the country opens up its financial markets.
Yang will also become head of country for China, replacing Laurent Couraudon who will take leave to pursue a personal project, said the French bank in a statement on Monday.
The changes take effect September 1.
The new roles are in addition to his responsibilities as head of country for Hong Kong and chief executive of BNP Paribas’ Hong Kong Branch.
Based in Hong Kong, Paul Yang reports to Eric Raynaud, chief executive officer of BNP Paribas Asia Pacific.
“As the China market continues to open up and becomes increasingly important to the global economy … we’ve decided to create a new role to look after the Greater China region which is a crucial market in our Asia Pacific development plan,” said Raynaud in a statement.
While many other European and US banks have pulled back in China, a difficult market in which to make a profit, BNP has doubled down in some areas.
During Couraudon’s tenure BNP Paribas boosted its China presence in some areas. In July last year BNP Paribas Cardif acquired Dutch bank ING’s 50% stake in its insurance partnership with Bank of Beijing.
Couraudon, a former officer in the French army, took up the post in 2011.
Geely Automobile and BNP Paribas Personal Finance agreed to set up an 80:20 auto financing joint venture in December.
BNP is also subscribing to Bank of Nanjing’s latest private placement to boost its capital announced in July, according to a person familiar with the matter.
There have been some bumps along the way: in July the Chinese securities regulator said it had handed cases involving BNP’s asset management joint venture with Haitong Securities to the police to investigate suspected insider trading.
Yang promoted
Yang joined BNP Paribas in Paris in 1988, and has held various senior positions in France and in Asia over the years, including head of country for Taiwan from 2001 to 2004.
He was appointed head of country for Hong Kong and chief executive of BNP Paribas’ Hong Kong Branch in 2011.
BNP Paribas has a presence in 75 countries with more than 180,000 employees, including more than 140,000 in Europe. In Greater China BNP Paribas has more than 3,000 employees.
