BNP Paribas CIB: Cristina Titu

I work in the Asian Equities sales team in London. I cover European Institutional Investors that are looking for investment opportunities through Asian Equity markets. I need to know my clients very well in order to use the best products from our range and sell them the right ideas considering their risk-return profile. 

 

BNP Paribas is one of the top derivatives Banks and after finishing my MSc in Finance from LSE, I wanted to start my career in a big derivatives house. Also a very important factor was the structure of BNP Paribas' Graduate Programme which is non-rotational - you go directly into your role.

 

At BNP Paribas I was given responsibilities very quickly; after only a few months on the desk I went on several business trips to Asia including one with my client -  which isn't necesarily the case in other firms. 

 

What I like about my job is that every day is different. However I always start the day reading the Financial Times on my way to the office. Covering Asian Equity Markets from London you need to be on top off everything that happened over night; once I've arrived in the office I read all emails that came through the night before. I also use Reuters and Bloomberg data & news to get more insight into the global markets. As you can see information is essential so the early morning ( 6 to 7am) is very important to get on top of everything that happened in the Global and particular Asian Equities markets. 

 

Every day we have our morning call with Asia starting 7:00am. We get updates from our Sales, Trading and Research Teams across Asia, from Tokyo to Mumbai. 

Following this, I am ready to call my clients: I discuss investment ideas, trading opportunities and arrange meetings with our Research Analysts or the Management of Corporates they are interested in. 

 

At 10:00am we have our Sales Team morning meeting. Every day we discuss the best ideas that we, as a team, want to put across to all our clients. Considering the significant experience my colleagues have on the Asian Markets, this meeting is a great opportunity for me to get ideas that I can discuss further with my clients. 

 

During the day, flows from our trading desk are important so I catch up with the traders. I also check the flows and markets with our EU and US trading desks. 

 

The rest of the morning and afternoon is usually full with client calls and meetings. When I'm marketing with our Analysts or a Corporate the day is particular busy, sometimes I have back -to-back meetings until late in the afternoon.  I really enjoy interacting with my clients so I always take any opportunity to talk or meet with them. 

 

After 6pm I deal with administrative tasks - the majority are related to my portfolio of clients. At the end of the day I do another quick read of any events that may happen over night in Asia (such as economic data releases) and read any related major news. On my journey back home, around 8:00pm I usually read the Asia Brief from The Economist which is always a good evening read.

 

I find the culture at BNP Paribas open, friendly and competitive. Working in Capital Markets you should enjoy a competitive environment - which I do! I'm surrounded by extremely smart colleagues that I respect and admire and above all appreciate their help. It's a great environment for me to start my career. 

 

I would recommend BNP Paribas to every student who is determined to pursue a solid career in the banking industry for all the above reasons (my experience so far). You would join a firm which has succeeded to keep a lot of key people with the bank for more than 10 years; so as a new joiner you have great, experienced people around you that are ready and keen to help you learn. 

 

BNP Paribas is a bank that considers the risks and opportunities in the markets and has a strong, long term strategy which I believe in. 

 

On a more specific aspect, I would recommend BNP Paribas for its non-rotational Graduate Programme which in my case was exactly what I wanted and enabled me to get on with my role and the team from my first day in the Bank. 

 

I would advice anyone to be different, try and stand out and to work hard in achieving your goal.