BNP Paribas is continuing its corporate and investment-banking overhaul; the company will hire 200 bankers in London over the next three to five years.
The hires are intended to build the firm's cash equities business. Fifty workers will be added in sales and trading, while another 100 will bulk up BNP's equity research arm, in an attempt to build up its joint venture with British brokerage Exane. An additional 50 hires will come in the bank's corporate finance division.
The French firm aims to break into the exclusive top-tiers of global i-banking. BNP's champions credit the firm with its acquisition of Belgian bank Fortis last year, giving it Europe's largest deposit base. However, the quick resurfacing of its rivals after the crisis and their recent, large-scale hiring initiatives have created fierce competition among the industry's top players -- meaning that BNP has its work cut out as it scales the big-bank ranks.