The announcement in November 2022 by BNP Paribas of the U.S. launch of BNP Paribas Exane marked another step forward for Europe’s top financial institution, which had acquired Exane, a leading equity research group, some 16 months earlier.
BNP Paribas, which has 193,000 employees operating in 68 countries, had also announced early in January 2022 that after two years it had completed the transfer of clients, technology and key staff from Deutsche Bank’s Global Prime and Electronic Equities business.
Also, effective July 2022, BNP Paribas promoted John Gallo to Global Head of Sales and Head of Global Markets Americas. Gallo, who has been with the firm since 2017, previously held the position of Co-Head of Global Markets.
BNP Paribas’ aim, he told Top 100 Magazine in March 2022, is “to become a global equities powerhouse” in addition to its strengths in fixed income, commodities, and currencies. Gallo, honored by that publication as one of the top 100 people in finance, said the firm continues to pursue “ambitious growth strategies in various emerging markets,” Latin America foremost among them, while at the same time understanding that the U.S. represents “our largest growth opportunity.”
Its launch of BNP Paribas Exane is evidence of the latter ambition, as it enables the firm to expand its offerings to U.S. institutional and corporate clients. The launch involved the transfer of Exane employees to BNP’s offices in New York and San Francisco. Exane had partnered with BNP Paribas for the previous 17 years.
The acquisition of Deutsche Bank saw about 900 staff transfer to BNP Paribas by the end of 2021, a process that had taken over two years. In a January 2022 news release, Olivier Osty, BNP’s Head of Global Markets, said the firm was “well-positioned to be the leading European Prime Services player on the global stage, establishing the new standard in prime services and electronic equities for institutional investors and corporate clients across the world.”
John Gallo, a recent contributor to a Bloomberg piece, served as Deutsche Bank’s Head of Institutional Client Group for two years before coming to BNP, and has over 25 years of experience in the financial industry in all. He began his career at Lehman Brothers in the early nineties, and in time became the youngest managing director in the firm’s history. He would later become Global Head of Liquid Market Sales — Lehman’s largest division — and also serve as Head of the Risk Solutions Group and Head of Global Rates and FX Sales.
John Gallo, a graduate of Fordham University, also served as Citigroup’s Head of Investor Sales for Global Markets in North America, and in all spent seven years at that firm, from 2008 to 2015.
John Gallo has also been part of the boards of such companies as Clickpay, Adjuvance Technologies, AMN, Inc. and Hourglass. He also sits on the executive committee and the board of The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine in New York City, while chairing the school’s finance committee.
Further, he endowed a scholarship to Columbia University in honor of his late nephew.
