Piper Sandler Companies, a leading investment bank, is pleased to announce the launch of equities trading in Europe and has opened a new office in Paris. Ben Allen, head of sales and trading for Piper Sandler Europe, will lead the Paris office, where the firm has appointed two strategic hires to further strengthen its European expansion.

Louis Renaudie joins as senior equity sales, bringing extensive institutional equities experience. Most recently, he contributed to building BNP Paribas’ U.S. and international equities distribution business in Paris. Louis Carpentier joins as a senior equity sales-trader, having worked previously in global equity trading at Edmond de Rothschild. Prior to that, he helped develop Société Générale Private Banking France’s cross-asset order-flow business.

“We are excited to broaden our reach and offer our leading U.S. equities franchise to European clients. This marks a significant milestone in our global equities strategy as we now have approval to trade equities for European clients and better serve them with a full range of capabilities. At the same time, the demand for our industry-leading U.S. equity research and execution capabilities continues to grow internationally,” said Deb Schoneman, president at Piper Sandler.

Through Piper Sandler Europe, the firm has received regulatory approval in France for equities trading and has secured passporting rights across Europe. The Piper Sandler equity research platform is consistently ranked among the top 10 investment banks in the world for the largest coverage universe of U.S. equities, according to Thomson Reuters’ Starmine. In the 2025 Extel U.S. Equity Trading Study (formerly known as the Institutional Investor Research Survey), Piper Sandler was voted by the buyside as the #1 small and mid-cap liquidity provider.

“We are incredibly proud to establish our equities trading presence in Paris. This approval is a critical step in our broader European expansion. We look forward to providing our European clients with seamless access to our equity sales and trading teams, while continuing to distribute our top-ranked equity research,” said Ben Allen.

As part of the European expansion plan, Piper Sandler has hired a total of eight sales and trading professionals. Last year, the firm opened an office in Zurich, Switzerland led by experienced industry veterans, Alex Molloy, Vincenzo Pescuma and Luigi Colazzo.

Source: Piper Sandler