BNP Paribas Asset Management has entered the UK with its first four ETF listings on the London Stock Exchange and hired Miriam Breen to head up ETF and index business development in UK and Ireland, ETF Stream can reveal.
The four ETFs are:
· BNP Paribas Easy S&P 500 ESG UCITS ETF (SPU5)
· BNP Paribas Easy MSCI ACWI SRI S-Series PAB 5% Capped UCITS ETF (PAAC)
· BNP Paribas Easy MSCI World ESG Filtered Min TE UCITS ETF (WMTE)
· BNP Paribas Easy ECPI Global ESG Infrastructure UCITS ETF (ENGU)
BNPP AM’s decision to list and distribute ETFs in the UK comes before the introduction of the Overseas Fund Regime (OFR) but after applications for the Temporary Marketing Permission Regime (TMPR) had closed, meaning the firm had to have its Irish platform recognised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under Section 272 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
Lorraine Sereyjol-Garros (pictured), global head of business development ETF and index solutions at BNPP AM, said gaining recognition was “a long process” and “not straightforward”.
“We launched the Irish Collective Asset management Vehicle (ICAV) at the start of 2023 and it was registered in the UK in March this year – the process took almost a year.
“As soon as it was registered, we worked on the listings. It took us until today to get the listing complete.”
She added listing on the LSE would enable the firm to target the UK market as well as a more international investor base.
“Some clients, such as in the Nordics, Middle East, Latin America and Asia prefer LSE listings over mainland Europe, so it enables us to target the domestic market and international clients,” Sereyjol-Garros said.
“This is a long-term objective, so there are plenty of other ETFs to be listed on the LSE. We have to think about which strategies, currencies and which form of income distribution the market wants.”
Accompanying the firm’s UK product roll-out, BNPP AM named Breen head of business development ETF and index solutions for UK and Ireland after more than a decade at Legal and General Investment Management across broker and account roles.
“There has been an acknowledgement of the short-term challenges for ESG funds, but there is still a direction of travel in favour of integrating ESG in portfolios, particularly within the wealth management community, which will be our primary focus for now alongside the broader intermediary community,” Breen commented.
The listings and hire come after the firm debuted its first active beta ETFs by listing the BNP Paribas Easy Sustainable US UCITS ETF and BNP Paribas Easy Sustainable Japan UCITS ETF listed on Euronext Paris and Deutsche Boerse last month.
