Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE: PIPR) has opened an office in Paris and launched equities trading in Europe, according to a company press release.

The firm has received regulatory approval in France for equities trading and secured passporting rights across Europe through Piper Sandler Europe. Ben Allen, head of sales and trading for Piper Sandler Europe, will lead the Paris office.

Two senior hires have been made to staff the Paris location. Louis Renaudie joins as senior equity sales, having previously worked at BNP Paribas building its U.S. and international equities distribution business in Paris. Louis Carpentier joins as senior equity sales-trader, with prior experience in global equity trading at Edmond de Rothschild and cross-asset order-flow work at Société Générale Private Banking France.

As part of its broader European expansion, Piper Sandler has hired a total of eight sales and trading professionals. The firm previously opened an office in Zurich, Switzerland, led by Alex Molloy, Vincenzo Pescuma, and Luigi Colazzo.

"This marks a significant milestone in our global equities strategy as we now have approval to trade equities for European clients," said Deb Schoneman, president at Piper Sandler.

Piper Sandler's equity research platform is ranked among the top 10 investment banks globally for U.S. equities coverage universe, according to Thomson Reuters' Starmine. In the 2025 Extel U.S. Equity Trading Study, the firm was ranked first among small and mid-cap liquidity providers by buyside voters.