BNP Paribas Private Bank has laid out ambitious targets in the French wealth management market as competition for the country’s high net wor...

BNP Paribas Private Bank has laid out ambitious targets in the French wealth management market as competition for the country’s high net worth market heats up. In a report in Les Echos, the Paris-based bank said that it has targeted growth of 10,000 customers per year for its domestic private banking business. BNP also said it would be hiring an additional 60 people a year to cater for the growth in the business. "In terms of share of the market, expressed in the number of customers, we have around 20 per cent of the market,” said Marie-Claire Capobianco, director of BNP Paribas Private Bank in France, in the report. BNP Paribas in France targets private banking customers with liquid assets of €200,000 ($242,635) and above. The French bank also said that it was restructuring its private banking business for customers with more than €5 million in liquid assets. These clients would be offered a “family office” service, with a team of specialised private bankers in areas such as structured finance, real estate and art investment. BNP Paribas is the latest bank to layout an aggressive stance in the French market. Recently, the newly merged private banking business Neuflize OBC, which is owned by ABN Amro, said it aims to become “the French leader in private banking”. Neuflize OBC has targeted to grow assets under management to €30 billion by 2008, currently the merged bank has €24 billion. The bank said it controls around 15-20 per cent of the private banking market in France of those customers with more than €1 million of investible assets.