BNP Paribas has urged investors to buy into the three asset-backed securities funds it will reopen next week, after suspending them earlier this month in a move seen as one of the first signs that the US credit crisis had spread to Europe.

The French bank's BNP Paribas Investment Partners subsidiary suspended the funds on August 7 after "the sudden evaporation of any trading activity on certain sectors of the US market", but will reopen them next week after developing a mechanism for valuing the funds in current market conditions.