JP Morgan takes top spot in Structured Products Americas Awards

- Richard Jory
- 25 Apr 2014

Product providers may have been using smart beta, or their version of it, for some time, but this is the year that everyone wants to talk about it. Whether it is index providers pushing dynamic solutions or exchange-traded funds as a way of finding new ways to access volatility, it is clear this is one trend that is here to stay.

Congratulations to JP Morgan, which has been crowned Americas house of the year for the second year running, impressing with a continued massive presence in the US market and an expansion of its Latin America and Canada franchises. The bank was also active in producing an index suite that client references raved about. The award for US structurer of the year was awarded to Credit Suisse, which sold $4 billion of retail structured products in 2013, increased its private banking business by one fifth and was noted for the calibre of its derivatives franchise and its people.

This year's awards include deal of the year categories for the first time - one for institutional and one for retail - to allow us to delve more deeply into what goes on behind the scenes of a large and successful structured product. Societe Generale is celebrated as the winner in the institutional category for helping Aegon to offload the insurance company's exposure to a portfolio of longevity risk by turning it into 15- to 20-year call spreads. The winner of the retail deal of the year award, Raymond James, worked with Scotia Capital and Morrison & Foerster on a new dynamic index. The team spent 18 months ensuring the investment did not fall under the category of indirect investment advice because of the stock-picking elements of the index.

Other notable achievements include National Bank of Canada's bespoke custom note platform, Incapital's advances in selling non-principal-protected products, and WisdomTree's Japan Hedged Equity Fund, which became a hit and attracted more than $10 billion in investment.

We would like to thank everyone who submitted pitches this year - they were of a consistently high quality. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all the references who took time to help us pick the most deserving candidate for each award. The individual write-ups can be accessed below.

Richard Jory, Editor

Awards write-ups were compiled by Clive Davidson, Richard Jory, Vita Millers and Yakob Peterseil