United Kingdom
The FSA's Retail Distribution Review: What price retail advice?
What price advice?
RBC Wealth Management creates new private client division in the UK
Philip Harris is to head the newly created Private Client Wealth Management team as RBC continues to build on its platform in the UK
Investec launches boutique subsidiary to target wealth managers
Investec unveils its first boutique products aimed at the wealth and discretionary management market
UK Treasury regulatory reform paper hints at potential industry costs
More details emerge on how the new regulatory regime in the UK will be structured
Barclays offers choice of barriers
Barrier picking
ETF issuers confirm tax status
ETF providers in the UK are busy confirming their distributor status, which will allow investors to pay capital gains rather than income tax
Lookback: The Which way
An irreverent take on events of the last month, including the Which confusion over structured products, ETF trading, S&P's benchmarks, a Swiss preference for capital protection and more capital gains tax in the UK
FVC custom indexes
The three FVC indexes fell between April and May 2010, mirroring the falls in the market’s benchmark indexes
Locking in principal protection
Merchant Capital is offering UK investors an at-risk growth product linked that locks in capital protection should the daily closing be at or above 110% of the initial level. Morgan Stanley is the issuer.
UK Wrap: Vanilla repeats rule the roost
Among the few products launched in the UK during the past two weeks, the popularity of the FTSE 100 is continuing as investors remain nervous
Incapital acquires Blue Sky Asset Management
US investment bank and structured products specialist Incapital will takeover UK distributor Blue Sky Asset Management. Blue Sky's book of plans will be subsumed into Incapital Europe
FTSE strengthens global business with executive hires
FTSE Group has added to its London office with the recruitment of five senior executives
Call for FSA to cut back on consultation documents
UK MP Jonathan Evans asks for a fresh, "simplified" approach on consultation, and fairer implementation of EU directives
UK ETF investors abandoning FTSE 100 in favour of global indexes
The balance of UK investments in ETFs has shifted from the FTSE 100 index towards ETFs based on the S&P 500, MSCI Emerging Markets and Japan in the first quarter of 2010.
FTSE indexes track firms' carbon exposure risk
Two new carbon indexes will enable investors to make investment decisions based on how carbon reduction schemes affect company earnings
Capital gains tax reprieve cheers investors amid budget gloom
The less-than-expected increase in capital gains tax announced by UK chancellor George Osborne means structured products retain their tax-efficient status
Sovereign debt and CDSs: a collection of articles from Risk.net
The world is watching nervously as sovereign debt is rocked by fiscal and economic crises in the eurozone.
UK Wrap: Growth and income products proliferate despite rising volatility
Growth and income plans were by far the most popular style of product over the past three weeks, thereby disproving the previous UK wrap prediction that autocall products would increase in popularity
Market snapshot
Tim Mortimer of Future Value Consultants reviews the product preferences in the US and UK structured products markets
FVC Custom Indexes
In Europe, the income index is the best performer over the past six years when compared with the accelerated and protected variants. Not so in Japan, where the accelerated index tops the trio of indexes as best performing. In both regions, the protected…
Barclays says kick-outs remain popular despite ISA confusion
Barclays Wealth says kick-out structures remain popular in the UK, despite the recent confusion over Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) eligibility. Barclays is reissuing two kick-out structures to UK investors.
FTSE targets UK pensions industry with defined contribution index
FTSE has created an index to help asset managers and retail investors navigate the pensions market. The index provider has partnered with London-based data services firm Pension DCisions to create the first benchmark for the UK’s defined contributions…