BNP Paribas Securities Services has acquired Banco Popular’s depositary banking business. The transaction is expected to close in early summer 2014, subject to regulatory approval.
Banco Popular is one of Spain’s largest depositary banks with €13 billion in assets held under depositary, including investment funds, pension funds and SICAVs (French open-ended collective investment schemes) managed by Allianz Popular and Popular Banca Privada, as well as EPSVs (Basque pension plans).
This acquisition will boost BNP Paribas’s expansion of its depositary bank business in order to help clients meet their Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) and UCITS requirements.
The bank acquired Commerzbank’s German depot bank business in 2013 and recently extended its depositary banking network to the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Allianz Popular is one of the main asset managers in Spain with €13.2 billion (including mathematical provisions) in assets under management.
Alvaro Camuñas, head of BNP Paribas in Spain, Portugal and Latin America said: “This transaction with Banco Popular, one of Spain’s leading universal banks, highlights our long-standing commitment to the Spanish market and marks an important milestone in the expansion of our European depositary business.”
“It will reinforce our local expertise and is part of our strategy to provide market-leading solutions for our AIFMD and UCITS clients in Europe and around the world.”
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