Area of work

Exotic Products, Structuring, EQD

Studied

Engineering, École Centrale Paris

Joined

2005

Working in

Paris, Trainee in Hong Kong

I work in the Global Structuring Group in the pricing team where we price structured products for the sales team. We only price exotic products, or structured products, which means they have underlying assets which could be equities or commodities or index baskets. We also price products for mutual and hedge funds and hybrid products, which mix asset classes, like stocks mixed with commodities and or credit rate products.

Day to day we mainly react to pricing requests from sales staff. It varies incredibly as to how long each job takes, the simpler ones only take half an hour, others can take days, depending on how complex the structure of the product is. The process for each is the same though, we evaluate the price of the product, taking into account all of the underlying asset classes and then calculate the risk both to us and to the client. After this we discuss the parameters and the smoothing of the product with the trader and then we finalise the price. Then, if the deal is done, I hedge the trade, put it in the book and the trader then handles the product during its life and alleviates underlying risks.

The most satisfying part of my job is when we complete a particularly complex job. I've just finished a project that I've been working on for six months where I spent two or three hours every week working on it. It was a relatively simple product at face value, looking at a call spread on Eurostoxx but with an insurance feature. We were trying to structure the deal for the client, but they needed our help to work through the various problems and issues involved to decide whether what they wanted was feasible or not. Eventually, when we decided it was possible, and priced and structured the product, we ended up with a very healthy margin and our client was really happy. It's a great feeling when it's been difficult but you get the deal done and everyone walks away happy.

I work in a team of seven, there are two senior people and the rest are juniors with one or two years' experience like me. It's a very stimulating and exciting working environment, the people I work with are very intelligent but good fun as well and it's not internally competitive. This is one of the main reasons I joined BNP Paribas, obviously it's one of the leaders in EQD and as someone who wasn't particularly knowledgeable about finance it was important for me to work somewhere that would give me good training and a good background, but I also wanted to work somewhere that was enjoyable. Out of the banks I researched and interviewed at, BNP Paribas seemed to be the most open-minded about the fact that I had no finance background, they were more interested in my aptitude, my skills and my potential.