Awards

Structured Products magazine has been following developments in the Americas since we launched in October 2004. And we have now decided to honour the best in the industry with these awards that recognise excellence and innovation

While the magazine has typically reported on developments in retail and high-net-worth markets, one thing we noticed while compiling these awards was the importance of corporate clients to the structured products community in the Americas. Compared to Europe, these markets may still be in their infancy, but innovation is alive and kicking and, in some instances, the best evidence of this can be seen with reference to corporate deals. As a result, we have included considerable coverage of such developments (particularly in the case of our innovation of the year award) and will continue to do so in our monthly publication on a global basis.

Our innovation of the year award was open to every company active in the structured products market - be they a distributor, structurer, index provider, technology company or law firm. As such it is the most competitive award category. Our other awards recognise excellence in specific areas and all winners can be justifiably proud of their achievements.

Winners were chosen from a large field in every category, after careful consideration by the Structured Products editorial team. Over the past year, we have noted achievements and asked the market for their opinions as to who is the best in the business. We took these comments on board, conducted our own research and devised a shortlist for each category. We then conducted interviews with the respective companies and decided upon the winner in-house.

Structured Products congratulates all the winners, and encourages those who missed out to look forward to next year's awards.

Award write ups were complied by Paul Lyon, John Ferry and Amanda Lee.

Awards contents

• Innovation of the year, Americas - BNP Paribas

• Structurer of the year, North America - Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking

• Distributor of the year, North America - Incapital

• Structurer of the year, Latin America - Merrill Lynch

• Distributor of the year, Latin America - ABN Amro

• Exchange of the year, North America - Chicago Board Options Exchange

• Index provider of the year, North America - Nasdaq

• Law firm of the year, North America - Morrison & Foerster

• Technology company of the year, North America - Sophis