OREANDA-NEWS. BNP Paribas has just published ‘The History of BNP Paribas in the Gulf States 1973-2014’, a book dedicated to the Group’s historical presence in the Gulf region.

‘The History of BNP Paribas in the Gulf States’ traces the BNP Paribas Group’s 40-year commitment to the countries of the Gulf. It was in 1973 that Paribas first opened branches in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), bringing to fruition a determined strategy on which the Bank had first embarked five year earlier.

From then onwards, Paribas and BNP – which would come together in 2000 to form BNP Paribas – steadily built up their presence in the Gulf States and laid the foundations of a strong commercial network. Paribas set up a branch in Dubai (UAE) in 1974, then in Manama (Bahrain) in 1975. Soon afterwards, in 1976, BNP set up in Manama.

This initial drive was further strengthened, first in 2001 by the establishment of a regional hub in Bahrain and then in 2010 by the rollout of the Group’s corporate and investment banking businesses in the Gulf.

Paribas’s settlement since the very beginning in the Gulf at a time when the other French banks were represented in the region solely through participation in consortium banks underlines the sheer originality of the strategy pursued by BNP Paribas in this part of the world.