Aras, a leading provider of digital thread solutions for product lifecycle management (PLM) and engineering AI, announced that BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business, a leading global custodian, has expanded its use of Aras Innovator® to advance PLM across its global operations. With $16.5 trillion in assets under custody, a proprietary network spanning 27 countries, and over 10,800 employees, BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business offers integrated solutions to all participants in the investment cycle – financial intermediaries, institutional investors, corporates, and issuers.
In a constantly evolving banking environment, marked by strong competition, growing regulatory requirements, and ever-higher client expectations, BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business continues to look for innovations to design, adapt, and optimize its products and solutions with agility.
BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business selected Aras Innovator as its PLM solution in 2020. The goal was to implement an agile, collaborative platform to manage product lifecycles, support the development of new services, and ensure traceability, regulatory compliance, and alignment with the BNP Paribas Group’s internal policies. The solution has since become a strategic driver of transformation and innovation.
“Our choice naturally fell on a PLM solution because the lifecycle of a financial product is comparable to that of an industrial product, with similar challenges. BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business was one of the first players in the financial industry to digitalize its PLM processes — from its offer and solution catalog to, more recently, its client pricing process — thanks to Aras Innovator, which fully meets our need for agility,” said Stéphanie Fournier, Deputy Head of the Business Development & Transformation Chief Operating Office & Chief of Staff of the Financial Intermediaries and Corporates Client Line, Securities Services, BNP Paribas.
BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business stands out as a pioneer in the financial sector in adopting PLM technology, traditionally reserved for manufacturing industries. Since 2020, BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business has gradually deployed Aras Innovator to more than 1,300 users, with several key objectives:
- Manage a catalog of over 100 products and their many variants across markets and geographies, centralizing all associated data
- Efficiently oversee the development of products and solutions in compliance with financial regulations and client expectations
- Address automation and data management challenges in a complex environment
- Ensure traceability and strengthen control processes
- Rely on standardized processes and an agile technical architecture
Centralized data management with Aras Innovator brings tangible benefits:
- Greater traceability: Financial product evolutions are documented for improved compliance
- Enhanced reliability: Automated workflows strengthen risk management across processes
- Increased innovation through optimized processes.
“Today, Aras Innovator serves as the true digital backbone of our product development process. It strengthens collaboration between Business and Support Functions, fosters shared understanding, enables a single source of truth for our data, and helps standardize and optimize processes while ensuring product integrity and reliability,” said Fabien Albucher, Head of Product Lifecycle Transformation, Securities Services, BNP Paribas.
Building on the success of the initial rollout and ongoing platform development, BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business launched a new strategic initiative in 2024: the digitalization of the client pricing management process (Pricing Module). This transformation marks a key milestone for the business. A new module, the first step in this digitalization effort, was designed, delivered, and successfully deployed between March and September 2025 to 600 employees worldwide.
The deployment of Aras Innovator within BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business has proven to be a catalyst for transformation. By digitalizing and automating its PLM processes, the business has gained agility, reliability, and innovation capacity.
Continuing on this trajectory, BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business reaffirms its commitment to operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, and innovation in service of its clients.
