BNP arm plans to tap India's rich and famous

Cortal Consors, an arm of BNP Paribas, is planning to foray into the wealth management services market in India, targetting the high-networth investors (HNIs), whose incomes range from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore. Cortal Consors is Europe's leading broker in personal investing and online trading.

In India Cortal's will focus on portfolio management services (PMS) and a web-based trading platform, which will pit it against ICICI Direct, Indiabulls, Kotak Securities and Sharekhan, banking sources said. India is the first market outside Europe that Cortal will step into.

Wealth management advisory services market is steadily growing in India with several foreign and private sector banks tapping the segment for increasing their Assets Under Management (AUM). The total size of India's asset management industry is Rs 1,65,000 crore.

Cortal will target a growing number of affluent Indians whose annual income exceeds Rs 10 lakh-a section of the economy which is expected to 1.7 crore-strong by 2010.

Cortal will become the first foreign entity to offer a web-based trading platform at a time when online trading has gained considerable momentum in India.