BNP Paribas has acquired a 19.2 per cent share of China’s Nanjing City Commercial Bank for around $87 million. BNP and Nanjing City Comm...

BNP Paribas has acquired a 19.2 per cent share of China’s Nanjing City Commercial Bank for around $87 million. BNP and Nanjing City Commercial Bank said they would cooperate closely in areas including wealth management, retail banking, fixed-income transactions, consumer finance, risk management, and information technology. Nanjing City Commercial Bank, set up in early 1996, is relatively young compared with other Chinese lenders but has made a name for itself as a market maker in China's interbank bond market. BNP said that after the acquisition it will become the second-largest shareholder in the Nanjing-based bank, behind Nanjing State-owned Asset Investment & Management Holding (Group), which holds a 19.7 per cent stake. The move follows a deal between UBS and Bank of China in the area of investment banking and securities products in China.