BBVA Corporate & Investment Banking (BBVA CIB) has announced that it is opening new trading and sales hubs in Hong Kong and in New York. The decision is part of the plan the bank started in 2019 to boost its equities business for institutional and corporate clients.
Contributing to the renewed BBVA CIB strategy in the US, a full-fledged equity hub is being consolidated in New York where the trading desk for US equity transfers from Mexico City as well as Marc Fauvain, responsible for this desk. Additionally, the bank has recently set up a specific local securities issuance program, thus enabling US investors to access BBVA’s investment products. The new trading desk, together with the distribution team in New York, will be able to add more value to current and future clients both in the US and in Latin America.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong hub will be a local extension of the global product capabilities of BBVA in the manufacturing of structured investment products for private banks and asset managers in Hong Kong and Singapore, both through traditional and digital channels. Last July Eric Michl joined BBVA from Natixis to lead this new global equities activity in Asia.
“The addition of two regional hubs, fully aligned and integrated with our operations in Madrid and Mexico City, is a key milestone for BBVA in achieving a high-quality local delivery of global investment products”, commented Roberto Vila, Global Head of Equity.
A strategy that started in 2019
Since 2019, the bank has been upgrading its technological platform to improve the scalability of its equity investment product platform and has focused on improving its digital distribution channels globally. In a press release, the firm has highlighted that from the outset, this has been an ambitious bet “that is already beginning to bear fruit” in the form of different types of deliveries.
In this sense, in May 2020 BBVA launched the epricer, a web-based price discovery tool for its equities and credit-linked structured products. In November 2020 it concluded the development of a new cloud-based tool named C-Fit to boost the equity team’s efficient and robust risk management capabilities. Later on in the year, a new business line was created to focus on the design, manufacturing and distribution of Quantitative Investment Strategies. Besides, a complete family of ESG indices has been available since the first quarter of 2021.
The setting up of those two equity trading and sales hubs in Hong Kong and in New York follows the same strategy “to build a robust, diversified and global investment product franchise”, BBVA says.
Por Funds Society, Madrid
Por Alba Menéndez