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One said: “I definitely do not want to see the powers of PayCom set too great. It could be a full-scale regulator, but it could also only be a licensing organisation.”However, one source said bankers are reconciled to negotiating over a number of issues with the Government. “If we don’t do exactly what they want over the universal bank, then they may get nasty over other issues PayCom is an obvious area they could use,” he said.. BNP Paribas, the French bank, plans to recruit 1,000 corporate and investment bankers in Europe by 2002 to take advantage of the expected shift in corporate activity from the US to Europe within the next few years. BNP Paribas, the French bank, plans to recruit 1,000 corporate and investment bankers in Europe by 2002 to take advantage of the expected shift in corporate activity from the US to Europe within the next few years.
The bank, which is planning to expand in Germany, southern Europe and the UK, is also looking to hive off the corporate and investment bank into a separate subsidiary so that “it can participate in further European consolidation”.BNP Paribas already has 13,400 staff in corporate and investment banking worldwide. It says it has completed the initial phase of integration between BNP and Paribas following its successful takeover bid 15 month ago and will now grow its business both organically and through acquisitions.In a presentation to City analysts yesterday, Baudoin Prot, chief executive of BNP Paribas, said that the bank is not going to pay “top of the market prices” to get into Wall Street at a time when most economists were predicting activity in the US is about to slow.In the UK, BNP Paribas is still interested in Charterhouse, the securities firm which was sold to ING Barings in July, if it goes back on the market, following the review of investment banking ING announced last week.

BNP lost out in July because it wanted to integrate Charterhouse into its business whereas ING was prepared to guarantee management autonomy to the firm.Initial indications are that ING wants to keep Charterhouse, despite having announced its intention to scale back investment banking operations. Mr Prot said: “Commercial and investment banking in Europe and Asia is going to grow fast and is going to consolidate We intend to be one of the consolidators. In Europe we are big enough; in the US we have some issues of franchise.”Mr Prot said that while the bank was not as strong in the advisory business as the big US firms, BNP’s takeover of Paribas had given the bank strong positions in areas of investment banking such as derivatives and structured finance where a big balance sheet is important, as well as in commodities where it is the third biggest player worldwide. The bank wants to expand in European equities.Yesterday’s presentation is the latest move in BNP Paribas’s attempts to convince investors and staff of its commitment to investment banking. In the immediate aftermath of the takeover Paribas suffered significant defections, particularly in London and New York, on concern that BNP’s more retail orientated management would wind down the investment bank. BNP has cut the capital devoted to investment banking from 45 per cent to 40 per cent. But the bank insists this reflects a desire for greater efficiency rather than a sign of retrenchment.Mr Prot said that BNP is also actively looking at acquisition targets in Asia.

However, he refused to be drawn on discussions with Singapore’s Overseas Union Bank where BNP is understood to be seeking a 20 per cent stake in a deal that could be worth $1bn.BNP took over Paribas after it won a gruelling three-way bid battle last year. This was sparked by an attempt by Paribas to do an agreed merger deal with Société Générale, the French bank.. Peter Cochrane, British Telecom’s chief technologist, has quit the company to set up a new firm, joining a brain drain of top executives from the struggling operator. Peter Cochrane, British Telecom’s chief technologist, has quit the company to set up a new firm, joining a brain drain of top executives from the struggling operator.
Mr Cochrane, 54, who joined BT in 1969 when it was still part of the Post Office, is leaving today to set up the British arm of a US technology incubator called Concept Labs.News of his departure comes just 10 days after BT announced it was setting up its own technology incubator at the laboratories where Mr Cochrane worked. A BT spokesman said he was unaware of any connection between the decisions.Mr Cochrane, who was awarded an OBE in 1999, expressed frustration about working for BT in a recent interview “A lot of us in the company are not where we want to be The environment is very difficult We have got constraints on what we can do. There is a lot of technology that we have created that regulations stop us using,” Communications International magazine quoted him as saying.He was concerned that BT was not encouraging ideas.