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The company said it had identified the IFA market as a strategic growth area and would be expanding its UK range.

The new funds will include an alpha currency fund run by subsidiary Overlay Asset Management, as well as a number of sharia-compliant offshore products run under an Islamic Sicav umbrella.

The firm said Islamic funds have performed well in previous economic downturns, adding its sharia range – which will include a global equity fund – could have separate sterling, dollar and euro share classes.

Stuart Johnston, client relationship manager at BNP Paribas, said sharia funds had shown their resilience this decade when equity markets looked tough.

"In 2001-02, sharia-related equity funds did very well," he said.

One of the main attractions of sharia funds is the religious restriction on investing in companies that derive income from interest such as banking – one of the hardest-hit sectors over the past year.

According to BNP Paribas, its expansion of its offering will also include a launch of Middle East and Mena funds. The funds will be part of a joint venture with Saudi Investment Bank and will initially have only euro share classes.

The expansion into the UK retail market comes despite warnings from Alan Clarke, BNP Paribas's UK economist, forecasting the worst recession in the UK since World War II, with a predicted economic decline of 2.6 per cent against the 2.2 per cent experienced during the early 1980s.

The move is the latest in a series of launches for the expanding group, which started up the Privalto UK range of funds, designed specifically for UK advisers, earlier this year.

These developments have come hot on the heels of BNP Paribas' acquisition of Fortis Investments, which itself had recently integrated with ABN Amro Asset Management.

BNP Paribas has been unable to comment on how Fortis Investments will be integrated as the deal awaits regulatory approval. However, the merger with Fortis has increased BNP Paribas' AUM to €500bn (£420bn) from €327bn. It is now thought to be the second largest emerging markets manager in the world.

Its acquisitive streak has also been fed by the recent purchase of multi-manager FundQuest and last year’s acquisition of a 28.3 per cent stake in Impax Group.

The expansion into UK markets has also been helped by BNP Paribas Securities Services, which has won contracts to administer IFA-launched funds, such as the Tenet Group range of multi-manager funds under the Sinfonia Asset Management brand.