BNP Paribas CIB Names Paul Mortimer-Lee Chief Economist North America

Maintains His Role as Global Head of Market Economics


NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Sep 8, 2014) - BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) announced today the appointment of Paul Mortimer-Lee to Chief Economist for North America.

Based in New York, this new role is in addition to his current responsibilities as Global Head of Market Economics. In this context, Paul will report to the BNP Paribas Group Chief Economist William De Vijlder, and locally to Bob Hawley, Head of Fixed Income Americas.

Until recently, Paul was based in London where he was responsible for the global economic coverage by the bank's team of market economists around the world.

"Paul brings many years' experience and tremendous knowledge of the global markets to his new role. With the challenge of a historically low rates environment and heightened geo-political uncertainty," said Bob Hawley commenting on the appointment, "we believe this will be particularly valuable to our local North America clients as part of the broader BNP Paribas platform."

Paul has been instrumental in supporting our clients by covering the financial crisis, the US slowdown, global inflation and global imbalances. He has also closely followed the operations of monetary policy at the zero lower bund for rates, the de-coupling of growth between the Eurozone and the North Atlantic economies and exit policies.

Prior to joining BNP Paribas in 1995, Paul spent many years in what is now the Monetary Analysis Division at the Bank of England where he was Division Head for forecasting and conjunctural analysis. He also worked on regulation and in the Markets division of the BoE. Paul also held positions at the IMF.

He is a regular contributor for the Nikkei newspaper and television commentator. He holds a MSc in Monetary Economics from the London School of Economics.

About BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas has a presence in 80 countries with more than 180,000 employees, including more than 140,000 in Europe. It ranks highly in its three core activities: Retail Banking, Investment Solutions and Corporate & Investment Banking. In Europe, the Group has four domestic markets (Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg) and BNP Paribas Personal Finance is the leader in consumer lending. BNP Paribas is rolling out its integrated retail banking model across Mediterranean basin countries, in Turkey, in Eastern Europe and a large network in the western part of the United States. In its Corporate & Investment Banking and Investment Solutions activities, BNP Paribas also enjoys top positions in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas and solid and fast-growing businesses in Asia-Pacific.