| A Day in the Life: BNP Paribas’ ‘good business here’ |
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| Gilles de Decker was appointed country head for BNP Paribas Group in Ireland on June 1st this year. He has executive responsibility for the bank’s Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) operations in Ireland in addition to his own client portfolio with a non-executive and co-ordination role for the bank’s non-CIB activities. The BNP Paribas Group employs over 200 people in Ireland across its business including, Fund Administration, Insurance and Re-insurance and BNP Paribas Real Estate, a commercial property services company. |
6.30 am I get up and start the day. I wake the children and quickly plan the day with my wife, Anne. I cycle to work which I enjoy as it prepares me for my day. It only takes fifteen minutes to get to our offices in the IFSC. Now that my family have relocated to join me, I am beginning to observe more of the city.
7.30 am I am at my desk and enjoy my one-allowed coffee of the day. I will have been tracking my emails on my blackberry and deal with some of the more complex replies. I will have reviewed my papers for the meetings of the day on the previous evening and will then check if there are any new issues.
8.30 am As I have just joined the team in Ireland, I have a series of informal breakfasts in order to meet all the staff. It’s 45 minutes with 7 people at a time. It’s good to get to know the faces and understand the people behind the work.
9.15 am I get back to my mailbox and make some calls. I was at a reception at the French Embassy the previous evening and have made some new acquaintances that I wish to share with my colleagues. Our international business is a key area for growth for us at the moment. The bank’s ambition is to be the No. 1 for corporates in Europe through ensuring we are looking after our clients in whichever country they may be in.
10.00 am Kieran Fahy is Head of Corporate & Transaction Banking unit and has a client meeting in our offices. When the diary permits, I like to join as many of the meetings as I can to be supportive, but also particularly at the moment as I am learning the Irish corporate landscape.
11.00 am Our formal Marketing Meeting convenes. The marketers are of course always in contact, but we have formal bi-weekly meetings to discuss current opportunities, market environment and decide actions. The team is composed of representatives from the Treasury, Fixed Income sales, Trade Finance as well as the Corporate and Institutional relationship units. Today we are sharing progress on deals as well as considering the budget. The Trade Finance business unit, headed by Paul Owens, is experiencing large growth at the moment, due to large business flows with Asia and South America. Trade Finance and more specifically, Supply Chain financing is considered a valuable alternative to plain vanilla credit.
12.15 pm I dial in to the Country Head Call. My European Country Head counterparts dial-in to a monthly conference call for key messages and experience sharing. We have a newly appointed manager who is conducting a tour of all the countries under his responsibility. I’m delighted to hear the positive feedback he shares from his recent visit to Ireland. He believes that we have a good business here and that it was valuable to visit as global perceptions can be misleading.
13.30 pm I’m not a big fan of large lunches and usually leave the office to get a light salad. On other days, it’s more important to me to get the fresh air if all the meetings have been held internally.
14.00 pm Paul Daly, MD of the BNPP Securities Services comes in for our monthly update. Paul’s business caters for Global Custody, Trustee Services and separately for Fund Administration. The Securities Services business has gained new key clients and is busy recruiting which is a good news story for us here.
15.15 pm Billy Quinlan and I set off to a client meeting. Billy is a relationship manager who supports me in my role as senior banker. Our client base is the top Irish corporates. I enjoy getting down to the deals and discussing the next project with the client. Today we are bringing Debt Capital Market representatives from London to meet with our client’s Group FD. The client is considering a bond issuance and wants to review the market condition in Europe and the US.� A USD issuance will require the client to swap the proceeds into euro as there’s a euro denominated credit facility to be referenced. This is the BNP Paribas model working at its best with the combination of our local presence and strong business line expertise.
17.15 pm I get back to the office and call our Credit Department in Paris. I hold a joint credit delegation with our Senior Credit Officer there and we discuss the merits of a current credit proposal. We need to agree on the financial covenants (leverage, interest cover ratio and gearing) to be included in the credit agreement. We want to make sure that our client maintains a strong credit standing throughout the five-year transaction while leaving the necessary flexibility to finance the� development of the company.
17.45 pm I address the email inbox again. The variety of topics to be addressed in this role is diverse and challenging but very interesting. Communications may deal with clients, representative associations, the relationship with the Central Bank, Operational matters with our COO, Jean-Francois Gloux. I enjoy the variety. I email a new business contact from the reception the previous evening and cc Patrick Curran. They were enquiring about our work in Commercial Property Services and Patrick is the MD of BNP Paribas Real Estate in Ireland.
18.15 pm I call into Larry Gordon’s office. Larry is the Head of Financial Institutions Group. He and Derek Kehoe, Head of Structured Credit Sales UK & Ireland, have been out to meet with one of our institutional clients after the marketing meeting earlier and he brings me up to date with progress since. Our next step is to organise a meeting between our client and our Group Senior Management at the IMF session in Washington at the end of the month.
18.30 pm I review my papers for the next day. I like to be prepared in advance.�
19.00 pm I usually head home again at this stage to enjoy the family evening meal. However this evening I have a work appointment. BNP Paribas have been nominated for their partnership with the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in the Allianz Business to Arts Awards. The ceremony is in Dublin Castle and the special guest is President, Mary McAleese. We win! It’s fantastic. The Moderns exhibition was one of the most ambitious exhibitions ever undertaken by IMMA comprising some 450 works. We’re delighted for both the success of the exhibition and the partnership.
20.30 pm I get home in time to discuss the day with Anne and my two boys. The boys are settling in well since their recent arrival here and we call my two daughters who remain in Brussels for their studies.
22.30 pm Time to sleep and prepare myself for a restful night, after my wife and I have shared our day and our ‘to do list’ for tomorrow. |
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