Asia’s private wealth giants shift gears to market-neutral

With interest rates low, structured product investors bypass capital-protected products for market-neutral strategies

Capital-protected structured products have been a staple of Asia’s private wealth investment market for as long as most veteran bankers can remember. But with US dollar interest rates at unprecedented lows, dealers say these structures are off the menu.

Into the vacuum left by the near-disappearance of principal-protected notes (PPNs) the larger private banks have started pushing new structures to clients.

Securitised options – or warrants – linked to an index, fund or basket of stocks are