BNP is rebuilding its emerging markets team amidst redundancies

22 October 2018

2 minute read

BNP is rebuilding its emerging markets team amidst redundancies

BNP Paribas is busy laying people off in London. It is also busy hiring.

The Times reports that BNP told up to 40 people in London last week that their jobs are at risk. Some are understood to be in the French bank's fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) division. Nonetheless, BNP appears to be making hires for its emerging markets trading desk, even though many banks took a hit from the Turkish currency crash earlier this year.

BNP's latest addition is Serdar Baykal, a director of emerging markets forex and rates trading for the CEEMEA (Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region, who joined in London this month.

Baykal previously spent nine years on HSBC's emerging markets and rates trading desks, focused on Turkey rates and FX trading. He has a BSc in mechanical engineering from Istanbul Technical University and an MBA from GISMA Business School in Germany.

Baykal's arrival at BNP comes after a difficult year for emerging markets desks and various exits from BNP. One of BNP's former traders, Tolga Kirbay, is understood to have faced losses of $19m in August on a Turkish bond bet after joining Barclays. Another ex-BNP trader, Niru Raveendran, now head of central and eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) credit trading at Deutsche Bank, is understood to have made around $12m on a similar trade.

BNP has one of the largest exposures to Turkey among European banks, which may explain its enthusiasm for hiring a trader specialized in Turkish markets in the fourth quarter.

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com in the first instance. Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram also available.

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)