The Banque Nationale de Paris is the only French bank with a branch in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, which gives its subsidiary, BNP Jersey Trust Corp (BNPJT), plenty of clout in the private and corporate trustee business, says Ian Grant, BNPJT director and general manager.
'We also have a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands and work closely with another in Switzerland,' Mr Grant said. 'We do a lot of business with our Hong Kong branch because of the facilities in the territory for private banking.' BNPJT's strength was its prime location and capacity to handle high-quality clients, he said.
'Hong Kong is interesting because of migration. The basic concept is that, if you are moving from one country in which the tax regime is fair, which is Hong Kong, to another country where the tax - such as income, capital gains and inheritance - is high, and if you find a way of placing your assets in a trust structure before arriving in your new place, then you can legally protect your taxation position into the next generation. That is a summary of what a lot of Chinese people have been doing.' Mr Grant said BNP's private banking group was growing in Hong Kong.
'There are more customers with substantial wealth and it is more likely that they will need trust services. In many cases, we don't market trusts as a product but we find that our customers have been to see their lawyer, tax adviser or immigration expert and have been advised that the best thing to reduce tax liabilities in a new country is to set up an offshore trust. BNP is often one of the banks selected.' Mr Grant said all BNP trusts were offshore.
'They are Jersey or Guernsey trusts but we set up joint trustees with portfolio management provided through our offices in Hong Kong and Singapore,' he said.
Another attraction was that BNP provided one-stop services.
'We rely on specialists in each geographical area we operate in. For example, if a client wants to specialise in Canadian stocks, we would use BNP Montreal for that, because we believe that investment services are better placed, geographically, in the base city in the investment market.