Striving to offer a holistic and personalised banking experience, BNL BNP Paribas Private Banking & Wealth Management’s lauded ‘One Bank’ model, leveraging on the expertise of BNP Paribas Group, successfully bridges the gap between wealth management and corporate banking in a way that delivers on the promise to ‘bring the entire bank to the client.’

In today’s fast-moving global arena, efficiency is everything – in the field of banking and beyond. It’s paramount for us at BNL BNP Paribas Private Banking & Wealth Management to simplify our clients’ financial affairs. Through our One Bank model, we are able to offer customers exclusive access to all the expertise of the single entities of the BNP Paribas Group thanks to a worldwide and integrated platform of tailor-made solutions. As stated, our aim is to bring the entire bank to the client.

So how are we able to put this into practice? Firstly, BNP Paribas is an international banking group and a global leader in different market segments. Our advantageous position allows us to serve and support our clients – ranging from entrepreneurs to families – in more than 65 countries, integrating wealth management needs with corporate and investment banking expertise. We are active in numerous fields, and we have expertly developed projects across real estate, M&A, global markets and securities services.

For each project undertaken, we deploy our best team of professionals to manage the most complex and transversal needs for our clients, generating new opportunities in the process. To strike the right balance, we rely on the synergistic and structured approach between different job profiles of the bank. The specialised know-how of our investment advisors, wealth planners, real estate and credit advisors is always available to deliver the added value needed to better serve our clients’ specific requirements.

In our service model, for instance, the role of the wealth manager is central to building and maintaining a solid partnership with the customer. To succeed, we take a strategic advisory approach, helping to transform each customer’s vision into tangible projects. Our model also embodies our value proposition clearly and consistently – we are a brand that stands for solidity, sustainability and proximity.

Moreover, by choosing BNP Paribas, customers get to rely on a solid financial structure, with a strong solvency rating and proven resilience during the different phases of economic cycles, in particular during periods of market uncertainty and geo-political tensions, when our diversification and prudent risk strategies give us a solid base from which to tackle the vicissitudes of the economic climate.

We fully harness solutions that integrate the group’s international expertise with our deep knowledge of the Italian market. As a bank, we have always paid close attention to our customers’ needs, leveraging our local connections within our specific territory, while also utilising the diversified skills of our local teams, giving customers the option to expand within global markets.

Wealth management with a difference
BNL BNP Paribas Private Banking & Wealth Management’s approach to customer service is comprehensive and far-reaching. Our customers expect to be served continuously and completely, not only for investments but for all financial, personal and professional requirements. They will find added value not only in the products we offer, but also in the quality of our services and the relationships we build and maintain, through transversal and international advisory, and via innumerable innovative pathways.

BNP Paribas Wealth Management boasts true expertise, being the first private bank in the eurozone with €410bn in assets under management – and with a presence in 17 countries. The wealth manager is a central cog in this wheel of success, and customers will quickly realise this stretches much further than the role of a simple asset manager. A wealth manager at BNP Paribas is more of a strategic advisor who accompanies the client and his family on their personal development path.

Furthermore, thanks to private assets (private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private debt), our clients have access to exclusive deals giving them the opportunity to invest in leading companies in Italy and abroad, within the main sectors, and with significant prospects for long-term capital growth thanks to co-investment.

A take on family governance
To address the issue of family governance, it is essential to have an in-depth knowledge of the customer and the economic context in which they operate. In Italy, every family business is a unique example of entrepreneurship that requires specialised and personalised solutions.

BNP Paribas Wealth Management has published an exclusive report in collaboration with SDA Bocconi School of Management on this topic. It highlights the distinctive expectations of entrepreneurial families, guiding managers and advisors towards a sound and proper family governance approach. The report focuses on successful European families that collectively give an overview of the current European market, and the research deep-dives into various issues – including emerging family governance trends.

We take a strategic advisory approach, helping to transform each customer’s vision into tangible projects

This body of research confirms that around half of the European Union’s GDP is generated by family-owned enterprises that account for nearly 50 percent of all European private sector jobs. Our business model supports family businesses to preserve, develop and maintain their corporate assets, with a focus on innovation, sustainability and how to weave in future generations to the fabric of those precious commercial futures.

At BNP Paribas Wealth Management in Italy, we approach family governance via a method we call ‘generational handover.’ This form of generational transfer means choosing a path that leads to the transfer of capital and managerial responsibility, from the present generation to the next – all put in place to ensure business continuity. The aim is to enable the asset transfer efficiently to ensure the survival of a business, as well as its stability and development over time. This very delicate phase revolves around the confidence that has developed between the outgoing generation with respect to the decision-making and managerial skills of the next. It embraces many legal, fiscal, strategic and corporate aspects.

A tool for managing this phase is inheritance planning, which – within our service model – combines high-profile expertise to provide holistic advice. Obviously each handover has to be precisely tailor-made to the family and business in question; each generational transfer is closely linked to the size and qualification of its assets, the type of business, the number of family members and the relationship among them – and, of course, the specific needs and the aims being pursued. Our goal is to make the generational transfer process a gradual experience based on structured planning, making the transition an opportunity for growth rather than a moment of crisis.

Next generation members are not only important for business continuity, but also for long-term strategic planning – they can help optimise both flexibility and resilience when it comes to change adaptation and contingency planning. By listening carefully to our clients, we have come to realise that there is an increasing interest in impact investing among next generation wealth management families. Through our models, we offer expertise in facilitating the transition to these kinds of investments, which in many cases will require radical changes in the way a family chooses to manage its wealth, with a fundamental rethink of governance structures, asset allocation and capital responsibilities.

Supporting a sustainable future
Sustainability is one of the three pillars of our GTS 2025 strategic plan. We endeavour to serve the economy in a sustainable way, placing ESG criteria at the centre of our operations. We strongly feel it’s our responsibility to generate a positive and real world impact with all stakeholders – BNP Paribas is committed to making a sustainable and inclusive contribution to the environmental, societal and economic challenges of our time. In a bid to do so, the group joined the Net Zero Banking Alliance, launched in April 2021 by the United Nation Environment Programme Finance Initiative. The two main goals here are to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and to focus on the most greenhouse gas emitting sectors – ensuring that key players in these sectors bear down hard on the most polluting aspects of their business models. Our ambitious efforts recently landed us an important accolade from Euromoney – the World’s Best Bank for Sustainable Finance award.

We continue to support and incentivise – through ESG funds – investments that promote environmental protection, clean energy transition, and the reduction of socio-economic inequality. Combining our skills with our clients’ influence, we have the opportunity to build a sustainable world for future generations.