BNP Paribas, Europe’s largest bank, returns to Miami

Europe’s largest bank, BNP Paribas, returns to Miami this week after a two-decade absence.

French banks BNP and Paribas merged in 2000. Both had offices in Miami before the merger and had an office together here for a short time before leaving the city in the early 2000s as numbers of international banks here declined from their peak.

BNP Paribas’ new Miami office was to open at 9 a.m. Wednesday at 801 Brickell Ave. BNP Paribas has invested over $3 million in the Miami office facilities and infrastructure and has “committed to invest additional funds into its Miami office project,” according to a press release.

The bank expects to bring 50 new, full-time professional jobs to the city over the next two years, the release said.

The office is officially BNP Paribas Securities Corp., a unit of Europe’s BNP Paribas.

“It expands our global markets business in the US,” branch manager Matthew O’Connor told Miami Today, “which is a main goal of our growth plans.”

“Miami is a prime location for our corporate and institutional banking business,” Mr. O’Connor said, “and will be an important part in getting closer to our many clients in the South Florida area and servicing their needs more efficiently.”

“BNP Paribas Securities Corp.’s Miami office is the latest example of the firm’s efforts to create best-in-class platforms and products for its increasing numbers of Miami-area clients,” he said, “and focuses on credit, equities, and macro global markets products.

“As BNP Paribas continues to pursue and execute on its growth ambitions in the region, the Miami campus will integrate seamlessly with the bank’s other offices in New York City,”

Philadelphia, and other US offices.

“BNP’s Miami hub,” Mr. O’Connor said, “will focus on adding new clients in South Florida, and also provide a gateway to fresh business in Latin America and other areas.”

BNP Paribas was officially established on May 23, 2000, at the merger between BNP, France’s leading deposit bank, and Paribas, an international investment bank. But its history goes back over two centuries, “marked by developments, transformations and challenge,” according to the group’s website.

Examples of the group’s worldwide infrastructure financing include the Caracas, Venezuela, subway, completed in 1983, and the Beijing-Hankou Railway, completed in 1906.

The bank’s history does not come without controversy. A CNN Business article from this February says that climate activist groups have taken legal action against BNP Paribas, alleging that the French lender’s loans to big oil and gas companies breach a legally binding duty to ensure its activities do not harm the environment.