The IFR 2023 awards have recognised BNP Paribas as ‘Bond House’ and ‘ESG Financing House’ alongside other accolades, reflecting the Bank’s global expertise and drive to innovate across capital markets and sustainable finance in a breadth of product areas.
BNP Paribas received awards in a total of eight categories:
A world class Bond franchise across regions
With its established global expertise across capital markets, IFR commended BNP Paribas for its “world-class bond franchise”. In addition to its strength as a leader in the European market, IFR notes that the bank had “made strides in the US” whilst also gaining market share in emerging markets, in which BNP Paribas is now a top-four player.
In reference to CEEMEA emerging markets, the Bank was distinguished for its deal strength, and was praised for being involved in the biggest deals of the year across CEE. Beyond the Euro and US Dollar markets, BNP Paribas’ expertise as a leading player in the Swiss market was applauded for its “highest-ranked non-domestic bond house” in CHF. BNP Paribas’ support for corporate treasurers in the European Bond market stood out for IFR too, especially the ability of the Debt Capital Markets (DCM) teams to “guide its clients through tricky issuance windows”.
In loans, BNP Paribas retained its European leadership and IFR noted that “the Bank remained the clear leader of the EMEA corporate loan market in 2023 leading refinancings and event-driven loans across the board”.
BNP Paribas’ efforts to continually improve its client offering was at the core of the top IFR Bond House Award, with editors explaining that the Bank has a franchise that is “confident in its abilities, yet not complacent, and strives to keep getting better”. This relentless focus of the Bank’s teams to support clients was recognised by IFR, which said, “BNP Paribas’ bond team is not sitting on its laurels” and noted that this commitment “ensures that BNP Paribas maintains its world-class standards each and every day”.
An unmatched global reach on ESG financing
As a longstanding leader in sustainable finance, BNP Paribas holds the top spot for all ESG Bond categories globally across corporate, financials and Sovereigns, Supranationals and Agencies (SSA). The Bank also tops the global ESG loans league table, highlighting its unparalleled strength in ESG financing to support clients across a range of sectors.
In awarding the bank ‘ESG Financing House’, IFR editors noted BNP Paribas’ “increasingly unmatched global reach in ESG products” and praised its product innovation across export and project finance, next generation equity linked instruments and securitisation, ESG research and a “notable stance on fossil fuels and renewables financing”.
The ESG product expertise was commended across global regions, with IFR observing “significant regional progress” whilst maintaining a “notable emphasis on integrity”. In a year that saw BNP Paribas enter a new phase of acceleration towards a low carbon economy transition and a pivot away from fossil fuels, the publication celebrated the Bank for its ambitious approach across policies and financing targets: “the flipside of BNP Paribas’ oil and gas stance is its adoption of ambitious targets for financing transition”.
Driving innovation in structured products and derivatives
The technical abilities of BNP Paribas teams to support clients in complex structuring needs was highlighted in awarding the Bank Structured Finance House in EMEA “for its outstanding skill handling the entire toolbox”.
Furthermore, BNP Paribas supported its clients in navigating headwinds in the broader macroeconomic environment in 2023, with rising interest rates and continued market volatility. This was reflected in the IFR award for Interest Rate Derivatives House, for the Bank’s increase in market share across the US and Japan, and innovation in the pricing structure for clients.
Across all continents, the Bank’s structured equity expertise was distinguished by IFR as market leading, with editors highlighting “BNP Paribas was comfortably the most active bank in terms of dollar issuance and number of deals, again”.
