BNP to reshape Italy private banking after BNL

GENEVA (Reuters) - BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) aims to transform its private banking activities in Italy, where it enjoys a sizeable presence following its acquisition of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, a senior BNP banker told Reuters.

BNP's 9-billion-euro ($11.4 billion) purchase of local mid-tier player BNL brought the French bank about 10 billion euros of private banking assets in Italy as well as 1.6 billion Swiss francs ($1.28 billion) managed by BNL's Zurich subsidiary, the banker said.

But these amounts could grow as BNP Paribas starts integrating its private banking services into the Italian retail network, Patrick du Saint, BNP Paribas Head of Private Banking Switzerland, told a Reuters' Wealth Management Summit.

"We operate a joint venture between our retail banking network and our private banking business line and we share the results," du Saint told Reuters on Tuesday.

"This has been our French model since 2000. Our results from private banking are excellent and this is the model we would like to apply to BNL."

The model, du Saint explained, allowed BNP Paribas to pool private banking clients using the strength and the breadth of its retail banking network in France.

Although BNP offers its services starting at the 250,000-euro mark, the integration with the network allowed the French bank to win over more affluent clients, du Saint said.

Italy has become BNP's second largest retail banking market thanks go the BNL purchase and represents 8 percent of the 135 billion euros of client assets BNP manages through its private banking activities.

Du Saint said BNP wanted to increase its private banking business in Italy but the lender will have to work hard to reach par with top domestic players such as UniCredit (CRDI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which manages 55 billion euros of assets, or the giant bank that will be formed after Banca Intesa BIN.MI merges with peer Sanpaolo  Continued...