The Paris-based bank, along with Western peers such as Credit Suisse, UBS and Deutsche Bank, has been operating in mainland China via joint ventures and other structures for some time.

BNP Paribas has appointed former Deutsche Bank figure Stanley Song in the newly-created role of head of BNP Paribas Securities Services in China,  with immediate effect. 

Song is based in Shanghai and reports to CG Lai, chief executive of BNP Paribas China Limited and Franck Dubois, head of Asia-Pacific for BNP Paribas Securities Services. He is joining Philippe Kerdoncuff, who has been steering BNP Paribas Securities Services since 2016 as the co-head, the bank said in a statement yesterday.

In this role, Song is also responsible for accelerating growth of the firm’s China Access programme, which supports international investments into and from China using different investment routes.

Before this role, Song was head of Securities Services for Deutsche Bank China. Previously, he served in senior client management and fund services roles at HSBC, State Street and Standard Chartered in China.

“Stanley’s appointment is very timely as we continue to deepen our comprehensive onshore expertise to help more investors navigate China’s domestic financial market,” CG Lai, chief executive of BNP Paribas China Limited, said.

The Paris-based bank, along with Western peers such as Credit Suisse, UBS and Deutsche Bank, has been operating in mainland China via joint ventures and other structures for some time, notwithstanding cooling relations between Beijing and certain governments over recent years. In 2021, BNP Paribas was granted a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) custodian and settlement licence enabling it to directly support foreign institutional investors across the full scope of schemes allowing access to China’s equities and bond markets, in addition to providing a full range of foreign exchange services. It also holds a bond settlement agent licence for the China Interbank Bond Market (CIBM), a Type-A Corporate Bond Lead Underwriting Licence and a Panda Corporate Bond Lead Underwriting Licence Type B.