BNP Paribas Boosts Its Global Commodity Derivatives Business.

NEW YORK & LONDON & SINGAPORE -- BNP Paribas is pleased to announce key appointments in its commodity derivatives group in New York, London and Singapore.

In New York, William Hartz joins the bank as a Director and senior trader. He joins from Bank of America where he worked since 2000, in charge most recently of managing the petroleum trading books. Prior to that, he was a senior trader at Statoil North America Inc. and Coastal States Trading Inc.

William Buchanan joins as a senior oil trader in the London office. He joins the firm from Standard Bank. Prior to that, he spent a number of years at Bank of America. Alexandre Benech and Raphael Juston transfer to the Commodity Derivatives team in London from the Equity & Derivatives division of the bank to beef up the commodity trading platform. Alexandre Benech joins as trading coordinator, in charge of overseeing global trading risks. Raphael Juston will focus on commodity structured products and investments, a joint effort with the equity derivatives products teams.

In Singapore, where we have been significantly expanding our energy derivatives presence, Christophe Gros will join as a manager for the energy trading desk. Christophe joins from Total Trading where he was the head of the Singapore office. John McArthur also joins the Singapore office as a senior trader. He joins from Deutsche Bank Singapore.

Commenting on these appointments, Jean-Marc Bonnefous said, "BNP Paribas has traditionally had a strong presence in commodity derivatives as part of its global energy and commodity franchise. As significant opportunities appear in this space for corporate risk management as well as investor's applications, we will continue to make more strategic hires in commodity derivatives and look at adding new products to service the bank's fast growing client base "

The Commodity Derivatives team at BNP Paribas employs 120 professionals based in New York, London and Singapore, and provides global commodity price risk management services and structured derivative transactions in oil, natural gas, coal, power, emissions and metals. It is under the responsibility of Jean-Marc Bonnefous, Managing Director and Global Head of Commodity Derivatives. The activity is part of the bank's Energy Commodities Export Project (ECEP) division which offers specialized debt and derivatives services to energy and commodity clients.

About BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas (www.bnpparibas.com) is a European leader in banking and financial services, with a significant and growing presence in the United States and leading positions in Asia. The most profitable bank in the Euro zone, it has a presence in 85 countries with close to 100,000 employees. The group enjoys key positions in Corporate and Investment Banking, Private Banking & Asset Management, Insurance, Securities Services and Retail Banking.

BNP Paribas provides a full array of financial products through a portfolio of brands that cover a variety of distribution channels. With offices in New York, BNP Paribas in North America offers a broad range of corporate, investment banking and securities brokerage activities. With locations in all the major corporate and financial centers across the United States and Canada, BNP Paribas in North America serves a world-class client base of multinational corporate and mid-cap companies, major issuers and institutional buyers. As a registered member of the NYSE, a NASD broker-dealer and member of SIPC, BNP Paribas Securities Corp. trades and markets a vast array of global and domestic fixed income and equity products.