Structured products
Merrill Lynch startles market with end-of-day news on losses
Merrill Lynch waited until trading had closed in New York yesterday to announce quarterly losses of $4.7 billion, including $9.1 billion writedowns on its structured product, monoline and mortgage exposures.
Cheyne assets disappoint in rescue auction
The auction of the first portion of assets in SIV Portfolio, formerly known as Cheyne Finance, took place this week, but the assets sold at just 44% of par value - well below analyst predictions.
Keydata offers income or growth
Keydata Investment Services has launched the Extra Income Plan, which offers either an income or growth. The income option pays a quarterly coupon of 2.075% pa while the growth option returns 58.5% at maturity.
S&P outlines "stability" changes to structured product ratings
US rating agency Standard & Poor's has outlined its proposal to include credit stability in its rating process, which could see severe downgrades for many volatile structured credit products.
Banks and hedge funds spur growth in OIS
Central bank activity has contributed towards a surge in trading overnight index swaps (OIS) over the past year, according to dealers.
Van Eck launches new Africa ETF
Van Eck Global has launched a new Africa exchange traded fund (ETF) on the Arca platform of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The Market Vectors – Africa ETF will seek to replicate the performance of the Dow Jones Africa Titans 50 index.
Barclays Wealth offer shorter term on Super Tracker
Barclays Wealth is launching a new shorter-dated version of its Super Tracker investment. The original product, which offers exposure to the FTSE 100 index, is now available in both three and five-year maturities.
Arc launches first commodity-linked product
Arc Capital and Income has moved into the commodity space with its first structured product linked to the asset class. The product is 100% capital guaranteed and uses a lookback feature to optimise exposure to three commodities.
Investec picks inflation for first income product
Investec has launched the first structured product in its income category; a hybrid product linked to the performance of both UK equity and inflation levels. The plan, which has a five-year maturity, offers minimum annual payments of 7.25%, with 50%…
SEC bans naked short selling of financial stocks
The US Securities and Exchange Commission will ban naked shorting of the major banks and mortgage companies from next week, in a bid to counteract the rumours that have surrounded banks such as Lehman Brothers in recent days.
Dow Jones launches GCC index
Dow Jones Indexes has launched the DJ GCC Titans 40 Index, which is designed to measure the performance of 40 stocks traded in five of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The index has…
Regulators shut down IndyMac
US banking regulators have seized IndyMac, the troubled California-based mortgage lender, which announced deep losses and job cuts last week.
iShares extends inflation-linked bond ETF range
iShares, the exchange-traded fund (ETF) arm of Barclays Global Investors (BGI), plans to extend its inflation-linked bond ETF range, as inflation pressures continue to amount in global markets. At present, the iShares inflation-linked ETFs listed on the…
Cloudy skies prompt launch of new rainbow product
London and Capital has launched a capital guaranteed multi-asset rainbow plan which offers exposure to equities, commodities and property. It uses a lookback feature which will weight the classes differently according to their performance, offering…
SG’s agriculture boost
Société Générale Acceptance (SGA) has launched the SG Booster Notes – Series 1, which are designed to provide exposure to five agriculture-related companies.
Doubt over opportunities for new monolines
With financial guarantors hit by a raft of downgrades in recent months as a result of exposures to subprime mortgage-linked securities – restricting their ability to generate new business - several new players are waiting in the wings to fill the void…
Blue Sky unveils third tranche of Accelerated Growth Plan
Blue Sky Asset Management (BSAM) has launched the third issue of its Asset Allocation Accelerated Growth Plan. The six-year plan is designed to outperform a stock market in the US, UK, Europe or Japan, as selected by the investor, while providing 100%…
New Dow Jones Africa Titans 50 index to underlie ETF
Dow Jones Indexes has released the Dow Jones Africa Titans 50 Index, a pan-African index that measures the stock performance of 50 companies that generate the majority of their revenues in Africa, or have their headquarters based in Africa. Investors…
PowerShares launches Frontier Countries ETF on Nasdaq
Invesco PowerShares has launched its frontier countries ETF, designed to offer access to particular equity markets in the Middle East and North Africa, on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Meteor banks on property market recovery
Meteor has launched a second kick-out plan banking on rises in the European commercial property market. It is linked to the performance of the FTSE European Public Real Estate Association Europe Index, which offers exposure to the publicly traded real…
Joint Associations Committee releases principles for retail structured products distribution
The five trade associations which have formed the Joint Associations Committee (Jac) published the final version of Distributor-Investor non-binding principles on July 9, following the completion of a consultation on a draft released in the middle of May…
Second review on Athilon rating
Moody's yesterday placed the AAA counterparty rating of credit derivatives product company (CDPC) Athilon Capital on watch for downgrade.
SEC hits out at agencies over RMBS
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday published a report detailing the results of its investigation on the three main credit rating agencies' practices in rating products that reference residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS).
Quant Congress: Models not to blame for stat arb crisis
Quantitative investment models were not responsible for the ructions in the statistical arbitrage sector in August 2007 and would, in fact, have proved extremely profitable should funds have weathered the storm, delegates at Quant Congress USA heard…