London is a world leading asset management centre. BNP Paribas Asset Management's Roger Miners explains why

BNP Paribas Asset Management is the investment management arm of BNP Paribas, a leading global financial institution. It offers a wide range of investment solutions encompassing active, passive and quantitative investment strategies for individual, corporate and institutional investors around the globe. BNP Paribas Group has been present in the UK for more than 150 years.

We spoke to Roger Miners, Global CMO & Chief Executive Officer at BNP Paribas Asset Management about the importance of its UK operations and why sustainable investing is at the heart of what they do.

What does your company do?

At BNP Paribas Asset Management, we manage assets of over €400bn on behalf of individual, corporate and institutional clients located in over 70 countries. Our global investment philosophy is to deliver long-term sustainable investment returns to clients.

We have a multi-year history of being at the forefront of sustainable investing. A few years ago, we made the bold decision to put sustainable investing at the very heart of our company and the centre of our philosophy and what we stand for.

London will always be one of the world's leading financial centres. It is a city of global talent with a highly skilled workforce.

Particularly for asset management, London is one of the leading centres worldwide, if not the leading centre worldwide.

Tell us about your UK operations.

BNP Paribas Asset Management is one of 10 UK subsidiaries of the BNP Paribas Group, alongside others offering services including corporate and institutional banking, securities administration, securities brokerage, insurance and real estate. These 10 UK businesses employ more than 9,000 staff across 21 locations. Collectively as an overall entity in the UK, we aim to help clients achieve their goals by combining local knowhow with global reach.

BNP Paribas Asset Management is present in 30 countries globally. We employ almost 3,000 people, including around 500 investment specialists and 500 client service specialists, of which around 200 are based in the UK. 

What are some of the benefits to being based in the UK?

London will always be one of the world's leading financial centres. It is a city of global talent with a highly skilled workforce. Particularly for asset management, London is one of the leading centres worldwide, if not the leading centre worldwide.

To drive a successful global asset management firm you need great minds coming together to deliver excellence and performance. Performance in asset management is a delicate thing to achieve. In the UK and in the City we find a huge diversity of talent and backgrounds that we need in order to deliver performance.

The UK also has a very sophisticated and well developed investor base offering significant opportunities for us in the asset management industry. As an international financial centre, London offers the benefits of language, legal structures that are very highly respected globally, and the most sophisticated regulatory environment in the world. I typically speak to people in Asia and North America almost every day so the timezone that spans Asia and North America is a distinct advantage.

The Square Mile of the City of London is also a concentrated area within which to access senior management at many of the companies we invest in.

In the environment of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a lot of interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Given our leading position in this area, we believe this sets us up well for growth in the UK.​

What are your company's expansion plans and how does the UK feature in these?

Our client base in the UK is growing. In the environment of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a lot of interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Given our leading position in this area, we believe this sets us up well for growth in the UK particularly given the increasing interest in ESG from institutional investors such as pension funds and insurance companies. 

Our largest office is in Paris and our main asset management operations are additionally in New York, Boston and Hong Kong, as well as London, where several of our key global roles are based.  These include our chief executive officer, chief investment officer, chief marketing officer, head of equities and head of legal.