BNP Paribas Makes Further Additions to Its Equity and Derivatives Business in New York.

NEW YORK -- BNP Paribas is pleased to announce the appointments of Kyle Rusconi and John Vlahoplus as Managing Directors in its New York Equity and Derivatives business.

Kyle joins the New York office from BNP Paribas in Japan where he was head of quantitative electronic strategies Asia since 2002. He joins to undertake the same position for the Americas. Prior to his position for the firm in Tokyo he spent six years at BNP Cooper Neff, a subsidiary acquired to manage the firm's proprietary trading. Kyle reports to Pascal Leyo, head of equity derivatives trading in New York.

Commenting on the appointment, Pascal Leyo said "Kyle brings great technical experience to the team in New York; having done the same job for us in Japan, his knowledge of the trading world is second to none."

John joins to help BNP Paribas provide better solutions to its institutional clients in the U.S. He will initially focus on the insurance sector. He joins the firm from Zurich Capital Markets in New York where he was in charge of designing structured investment products. John reports locally to Pascal Leyo and functionally to Laurent Bouaziz, head of the structuring and new products group.

Commenting on the John's appointment, Amine Belhadj, Head of Equity and Derivatives for the Americas said, "I am delighted to welcome John to the team, he brings eleven yeas of experience in the insurance sector and will be a great asset to the group. BNP Paribas is a leading player in global equity derivatives. Many of the most successful equity derivatives structured products in issuance are currently engineered by our structured product teams around the world."

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 NYSE member, 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.