BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking Names Sebastien Cottrell to Its Structured Credit Trading Team in the US

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - March 2, 2009) - BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) is pleased to announce the appointment of Sebastien Cottrell to the firm's structured credit trading team in the US. He will be based in New York and report to Olivier Renart, Head of US Structured Credit, and Romain Blanchard who is based in London and leading the firm's global efforts to expand and integrate its structured credit market making platform.

Sebastien joins BNP Paribas CIB from Blue Mountain Capital Management where he was a structured credit trading portfolio manager. He was also a trader in structured credit at Merrill Lynch and Bank of America.

Commenting on his appointment, Olivier Renart said, "Sebastien is a great addition to the structured credit team. His trading experience, especially in CDX, is a nice complement to our existing client offering and will further enhance our presence in the US."

About BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking

BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment banking division (http://cib.bnpparibas.com/) has almost 16,000 employees, deployed in 53 countries around the world. BNP Paribas CIB excels in three fundamental sectors in particular:

Derivatives -- it is one of the leading global players in rates, credit, forex, commodity and equity derivatives.

Capital markets -- it is amongst the top ten Euro houses for both ECM and DCM (bond issues, securitization, convertibles and shares).

Structured finance -- it is amongst the world leaders for acquisition, export, project and commodity finance.

About BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas (www.bnpparibas.com) is a European leader in global banking and financial services and is one of the 6 strongest banks in the world according to Standard & Poor's. The group is present in 85 countries, with more than 171,000 employees, including 131,000 in Europe and 15,000 in the United States. The group holds key positions in three major segments: Corporate and Investment Banking, Asset Management & Services and Retail Banking. Present throughout Europe in all of its business lines, the bank's two domestic markets in retail banking are France and Italy. BNP Paribas also has a significant presence in the United States and strong positions in Asia and the emerging markets.

Contact Information: Press contacts: Edwina Frawley-Gangahar Media Relations, New York +212-841-3719 Kerrie McHugh Media Relations, New York +212-841-3809