Ethics and Compliance

In addition to the ethics rules that apply to all BNP Paribas employees, buyers of the Group have specific commitments to respect :

•  Equal treatment of suppliers . In particular during an RFP process, the buyer must provide the same information for all bidders, demand the same lead times, and evaluate the answers with the same criteria.
•  Absence of conflicts of interest . In order to avoid all risks of conflict of interests, the buyer must declare to his management and to his Human Resources department all personal links they may have with a supplier: shareholder, kinship or non-professional link with a company director or sales staff.
•  Confidentiality of information . Information regarding purchases and contracts are strictly confidential.
•  Customer-Supplier Relationship : Some suppliers may also be clients of the Group. That does not mean that they should receive special treatment. Reciprocal trading forms no part of BNP Paribas policy; however, systematic rules of selection should come with elementary rules of courtesy, to avoid a poor supplier relationship becoming prejudicial to an existing or potential customer relationship.

Hospitality and gifts from suppliers :

BNP Paribas has defined the rule of conduct applicable to the relationships of the employees with the suppliers:

• During sensitive periods , when bid procedures are launched, the buyer must rigorously decline all gifts , benefits or hospitality, whatever their cost.
• Outside sensitive periods, the buyer may accept gifts (including hospitality at events or dinners) so long as they are of a reasonable value and/or frequency in the respect of the current Legislation in the various countries.
•  Non ethical practice on behalf of the suppliers : Any practice or attempt identified as non ethical on the part of a supplier to a buyer will be compiled in the observation database of the Purchasing Function and is likely to eliminate the supplier from all or part of current or future markets with the BNP Paribas Group all over the world.