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Interview: Olivier Paul, BNP Paribas

17 February 2010

BNP Paribas has once again topped the Dealogic trade finance league tables completing an impressive $11.9 billion worth of business. Dickon Harris catches up with Olivier Paul, the bank’s global head of export finance.

Read more: [BNP Paribas export finance] [Olivier Paul] [Dealogic trade finance] [export finance league tables]

Trade Finance (TF): Congratulations on topping the 2009 league tables. Where you expecting to do so well?

Olivier Paul (OP): We have been extremely strong in this area for the last 10 years and have topped this poll now for the last three consecutive years and for the fourth time in the last five years.We have an extremely strong team in place and the right skills and people to do an impressive number of transactions and last year was no exception.

We cover the whole structure around exports. Our teams have people who can add value to these deals by adding additional tools such as hedging structures to handle interest rate or currency volatility. Right now at BNP Paribas we have 110 people doing export finance. We are still in the processing of merging with Fortis and we expect this figure to expand to at least 140 people this...


Poll

Will Russia’s recent ban on grain exports result in a significant rise in private risk insurance claims from grain traders unable to fulfil their contracts?

Yes – there will be more claims. The government’s actions allow traders, with PRI cover, to make claims through contract frustration.
8%
No - the majority of Russia’s wheat production, some 70%-80%, is used for domestic consumption so the contracts represent only a small portion of the total wheat market, limiting the amount of potential claims.
23%
No - traders had a week’s notice before the ban allowing them to secure alternative supplies to fulfil contracts stated as optional origin.
23%
Maybe - but claims are likely to be limited to traders dealing in soft wheat whose contracts demand they source wheat only from Russia.
46%

Quote

A collateral manager may manage collateral well but it won’t tell you if someone’s about to go belly up.

Steven Pout, Agriservice - Brazil: Agri-sector bounces back - Trade Finance, July/August 2010