Xavier Terrasse, the patron of the 2014 year group

On February 22, in a hall full to overflowing, all members of EPITA’s 2014 year group, ie more than 220 students, listened attentively to their patron Xavier Terrasse, CIO of BNP Paribas – Retail Banking in France (BDDF). Mr Terrasse presented at length the activities of his organization, and in particular the BDDF. The latter manages close to 6.8 million private individuals, including clients of private banking services, 612,000 professional clients and 77,000 corporate and institutional clients. It has close to 32,800 employees.

“We wanted to choose someone who is representative of your professions, EPITA’s General Manager Joël Courtois explained. This is why we opted for a Chief Information Officer (CIO). The role of the patron is to open doors for you.”
“I accepted, because I believe we should make the most of young French talents, Xavier Terrasse continued. Another reason is that I want to show another image of banking, which is not just made of traders…”

“You are the future”
“Despite the crisis, BNP Paribas has posted an annual profit of 6 billion euros”, the patron of the 2014 year group continued. He then talked about the growing use of the Internet in banking activities: 80 % of the transfers and stock market orders performed by BNP Paribas are done via the web. The bank and the services of which Xavier Terrasse is in charge manage more than 1,280 operations per second.

After a comprehensive presentation of his organization’s activities, the CIO had a talk with the students, who were very interested. He committed himself to considering each of their internship applications. “I am very proud to be your patron, he concluded. You are the future of IT, of banking and of a changing world.”