BNP Paribas brings its "euro angels" to Paris for an exceptional day of training

The introduction of the euro will be a historic event for our country but also an enormous challenge for everyone. Less than a month before the distribution of the first euro coins, the main challenge is now to provide customers with personalised assistance during the period from 14th December to 17th February 2002. Indeed, personal service is essential to help the French deal with the psychological shock and practical problems caused by the introduction of the euro.

To this end, BNP Paribas recruited 5,000 students (from 10,172 applications received) across the country and brought around 4,000 of them to Paris on 17th November for a national preparation day, during which they were trained and motivated, before receiving an extra day's training on their base location.

These "youths for the euro" will act as euro ambassadors for customers to answer any general questions they may have, assist them in simple operations, help them understand the euro (for example by carrying out a conversion operation) and direct them to the appropriate person if necessary. They will be available in BNP Paribas' 2,200 branches from 14th December 2001.


This initiative enables BNP Paribas and its teams, who have been preparing euro since 1999, to provide the best possible assistance to the bank's 6 million customers in France.


BNP Paribas has adopted a proactive attitude in terms of public information and assistance to its customers since the beginning of the introduction to the euro campaign : creation of eurokiosks from November 1998, sponsorship of radio and TV awareness programmes, systematic mailing of statements in euros and newsletters to all its customers. In technical terms, all the bank's internal accounting was converted to euros from 1st