BNP Paribas is sponsoring the creation of a university chair in financial mathematics in a move that highlights the academic foundations of France's success in the derivatives industry.

The French bank has signed an agreement with the Ecole Centrale Paris - one of the grandes écoles that sit at the pinnacle of the French higher education system - under which it will pay €300,000 ($389,000) annually for an initial period of five years in order to support a new teaching and research team.