BNP Paribas partners with Thai retail brokering giant

The bank signed a Cooperation Agreement with Finansia Syrus Securities Public Company Limited and its subsidiary, ACL Securities Co.support institutional clients of BNP Paribas trading on the Thai Stock and Futures Exchanges.

In a statement, BNP Paribas said the deal also covers the establishment of institutional research, sales and dealing teams in ACLS. The subsidiary would also provide Direct Market Access or DMA trading services to BNP Paribas clients

"This Cooperation Agreement with Finansia and ACL demonstrates our commitment and determination to build a balanced Asia Pacific equities and derivatives platform," said Pierre Rousseau, Head of Global Equities and Commodity Derivatives for BNP Paribas, Asia Pacific.

ACLS is an 89 percent owned subsidiary of FSS and has shareholder equity of Baht473 million as of 30 June 2010. It has 4 securities licenses and is a full member of both the SET and TFEX. FSS is a major retail broker with a 4.9% market share andranks 5th of all securities brokers for October 2010.

FSS, as a retail brokerage specialist, will concentrate on business derives from local retail clients, while ACLS, in cooperation with BNP Paribas Securities, will focus exclusively on institutional clients. This market segmentation will reinforce a “Chinesewall” separation between the two business categories of FSS.