The French bank also did not comment on plans to end its research partnership with Morningstar after more than four years. The expansion of the equities business by BNP comes as its Wall Street peers have reduced investment banking headcount this year amid sluggish trading and dealmaking activities. In Asia, BNP competes with large Western banks including Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Goldman Sachs (GS.N), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and UBS (UBSG.S), as well as a host of local investment banks in the cash equities business. One of the sources said BNP could boost its Asia equities headcount by as much as 20 over the next year. The bulk of BNP's in-house equities research team, mainly in Hong Kong and Singapore, departed as a result of that deal.

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Persons: Dado Ruvic, Morningstar, Jean, Laurent Bonnafe, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Jason Yates, BNP's, William Bratton, Exane, Bratton, " Yates, Selena Li, Sumeet Chatterjee, Jamie Freed Organizations: BNP, Bank, REUTERS, Morningstar, Deutsche, JPMorgan, UBS, Thomson Locations: HONG KONG, Asia, Asia Pacific, Europe, U.S, Russia, Ukraine, Pacific, BNP's, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, South Korea, India