Structured products
WHAT IS THIS? Structured products are investments that have multiple components. For retail investors, the most common form is a bond plus an option – these tend to be standardised, sold in small tickets and large volumes. Managing the risks of large structured products portfolios is one of the biggest challenges dealers face.
Product performance
Products with strike dates in January and weekly valuations are reviewed this month
Trade of the month: Secondary trading
The secondary trading of structured products in the UK is limited by low liquidity, which is partly due to bid-offer spreads that are wide enough to deter investors. While most providers of retail structured products in the UK publish prices throughout…
The White stuff
JW Advisors was established earlier this year by Joseph White, one of a growing number of intermediaries leaving investment banks to go independent. Now White is constructing credit diversified portfolios for institutional clients, who are reaping the…
Capinordic expansion
Capinordic Asset Management, part of the Denmark-based Capinordic Bank, is planning to launch a structured products distribution business in Sweden. Pierre Cooper talks to Johan Tjeder, the fund manager who has been brought in to help set up the operation
Guardian of the gates
Simon Gray, director of supervision at the Dubai Financial Services Authority, talks to Richard Jory about the regulatory infrastructure in place for governing institutional, and more recently retail, structured products
Best in India - Standard Chartered Bank
India's structured products market is still in its infancy, and has been as vulnerable to the fallout from losses on Lehman Brothers Minibonds as most other markets in Asia. Despite these drawbacks, Standard Chartered Bank has stood firm, ramping up…
Best in Hong Kong - HSBC
In a year that saw hundreds of investors take to the streets to protest about the mis-selling of Lehman Brothers-linked notes, HSBC managed to sidestep the controversy and continue issuing a full range of structured product
Best in China - Standard Chartered Bank
Structured Products Asia Awards 2010
Best in Taiwan - Standard Chartered Bank
If all regions in Asia have suffered as a result of the Lehman Brothers collapse, then Taiwan, where sales have almost ground to a halt more than once over the past 12 months, might well be the toughest place in which to resurrect the retail industry. On…
Best in Malaysia - CIMB
CIMB has won the Structured Products Malaysia house of the year award for three years in a row, and, despite stiff competition from some big international players this year, it beat all comers with a set of innovative products that were hugely popular.
Best in Japan - HSBC
HSBC entered the Japanese structured products business as recently as 2008, but its range of top-drawer products has succeeded in capturing a significant chunk of the market despite the financial crisis and the damage caused by some banks mis-selling…
Seeking simplicity
Almost a year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, German retail investors are again becoming comfortable with products from US investment banks. This means that domestic players will need to fight hard to retain their increased market share as the…
Winning strategies
The new breed of systematic structured products offers investors a third way between long-only managers and hedge funds. As well as providing strategies similar to hedge funds, but with better transparency, liquidity and lower costs, the products could…
RBS returns to market with NDFA following Keydata collapse
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is returning to the intermediary market with its new range of structured products after replacing its now-insolvent administrator Keydata with NDFA.
US Wrap: UBS and JP Morgan vie for space in reverse convertibles
UBS and JP Morgan have both released a handful of reverse convertible notes into the US structured products market. The notes included financials (Citi, Wells Fargo and Bank of America) and commodity equities (US Steel and Freeport McMoran).
UK Wrap: Walker Crips offers new at risk growth plan
There was a bumper issuance of 24 structured products last week, thanks mainly to Investec launching its 11th collection of plans.
US Wrap: US & Asia plays close week
A mix of nine different US and Asian equity plays brought the US market to a close last week. Citi launched two new notes - both a reverse convertible and an accelerated growth note. The latter was linked to the performance of the S&P 500 index, offering…
RBS returns to market with NDFA after Keydata collapse
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is launching back into the intermediary market with its new range of structured products after replacing its now insolvent administrator Keydata with NDFA.
Ex-Keydata consultant opens new firm for business
Gilliat Financial Solutions, a specialist UK structured products distributor founded by ex-Keydata consultant Adrian Neave, has announced it plans to launch two new FTSE-based products in early September.
Structured products preferred by advisers, says Morgan Stanley survey
Structured products have come top of the list of investment products financial advisers would recommend to their clients, according to a new survey by Morgan Stanley. Structured plans leapt two places from the bank's last survey in December 2008,…
Distribution veteran joins Advisors Asset Management in US
Brian Jones has been hired by Advisors Asset Management (AAM), the broker dealer firm, as managing director of retail sales distribution, exiting his position as managing director, head of equity derivatives sales for the Americas at Macquarie Capital…