BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking Builds Its US Convertible Securities Business With the Appointment of Luke Edwards

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - September 2, 2009) - BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking is pleased to announce the appointment of Luke Edwards as the Head of its US Convertible Securities business. Based in New York, Luke will report to Namuk Cho, Head of Flow and Structured Trading for the Americas. He will aid BNP Paribas in the launch and build out of a top tier US Convertible Securities business to complement the firm's Equities and Derivatives capabilities as well as support the expansion of its recently acquired Prime Brokerage unit. Furthermore, this effort will complement the existing European Convertible Securities Business where BNP Paribas ranks second on new issues in 2009 and is a leading market maker.

Prior to joining BNP Paribas, Luke was most recently US Deputy Chief Investment Officer for the KBC AIM Hedge Fund, a fund well known for Convertible Arbitrage and Capital Structure Investing. Before that, he spent seven years at KBC Financial Products where his positions included head of US Proprietary trading and head of US Convertible Securities trading. He began his trading career at JP Morgan as a Convertible Securities trader within the Equity Derivatives Group.

Commenting on the appointment, Lionel Crassier, Head of GECD Americas, said, "Luke is a great addition to our team. His experience and impressive track record will be a tremendous asset as we look to expand our current client offering to include convertible securities, and further build upon the synergies across the various businesses on our platform."

About BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking

BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment banking division (http://cib.bnpparibas.com/) has almost 17,000 employees, deployed in 53 countries around the world. BNP Paribas CIB excels in three fundamental sectors in particular:

Derivatives - it is one of the leading global players in rates, credit, forex, commodity and equity derivatives.

Capital markets - it is amongst the top ten Euro houses for both ECM and DCM (bond issues, securitization, convertibles and shares).

Structured finance - it is amongst the world leaders for acquisition, export, project and commodity finance.

About BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas (www.bnpparibas.com) is one of the 6 strongest banks in the world according to Standard & Poor's*. With a presence in 85 countries and more than 205,000 employees, 165,200 of which in Europe, BNP Paribas is a global-scale European leader in financial services. It holds key positions in its three activities: Retail banking, Investment Solutions and Corporate & Investment Banking. The Group benefits from its four domestic markets: Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg. BNP Paribas also has a significant presence in the United States and strong positions in Asia and the emerging markets.

* Within its peer group

Contact Information: Press Contacts: Edwina Frawley-Gangahar Media Relations, New York +212-841-3719 Kerrie McHugh Media Relations, New York +212-841-3809