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.
Banks offer short-term plays on natural resources
Royal Bank of Canada leads the offering of short-maturity structured products in the US public market with 12 products, half of which have maturities of just three months
Risk Espana rankings 2012
Light at the end of the tunnel
FSA releases final guidance as well as complexity insight
The UK Financial Services Authority released its final guidance on retail structured products on March 23. The consumer protection document was released by the regulator ahead of more statements of extreme caution from FSA chairman Adair Turner and after…
FVC custom indexes
FVC custom indexes
Editorial: Safety in deposits
Editor's letter
Lookback
Lookback
Product performance
Product performance
Market snapshot
Market snapshot
Exchange-traded notes see huge demand in South Africa
Speeding into listed products
Sasfin punches above its weight
Hybrids to commodities
UK distributors get defensive with volatility structures and multi-asset deposits
The UK structured products markets is still saturated with FTSE-linked deposits, though a few exotics are appearing on the menu
Sponsored statement: The Royal Bank of Scotland
MarketDirect transforms automated pricing and trading
South African investors favour gold ETFs over gold stocks
South African gold mining stocks underperformed the world's largest gold ETF by 10% in 2011, boosting demand for gold exchange-traded funds
South African structurers struggle to meet demand for tax efficiency
Changes to the capital gains tax regime in South Africa are skewing returns and could pose increasing problems for product structurers, warn market participants
New EC rules on Prips to be released in the form of a regulation
Legislation the European Commission is preparing for structured products is being circulated to European Union member states and will come in the form of a regulation. Richard Jory analyses the final draft document
Goldman Sachs offers leveraged return note linked to 20 stocks
Goldman Sachs is offering a leveraged return note based on an extraordinary 20 US stocks. Friday's registration of structured products for the public issuance market was otherwise peppered with reverse convertibles, as well as the odd leveraged return…
FSA releases final guidance on retail structured products and does not equate complexity with riskiness
Though little has changed since the FSA published draft guidance on structured products towards the end of last year, the newly released formal guidance contains an additional steer on the subject of stress testing
S&P Indices partners with Isda to assess credit quality of US and European banks
S&P Indices launches equally weighted proxies that measure the quality of US and European banks in conjunction with Isda, the trade body for the global OTC derivatives industry
Belgian private banks shy away from structured products
Extracting value from high-net-worth investors became a priority for Belgian banks in response to the Financial Services and Markets Authority's moratorium, but as mounting regulatory pressure spooks investors, private banks are bringing their structured…
Eusipa: European retail structured product volumes fell sharply at end of 2011
The European umbrella structured products trade association has reported that structured product volumes on stock exchanges in Europe fell 26% in the final quarter of 2011
Bank of Montreal offers plethora of reverse convertibles in the US
Thirty-five new structured products were listed with the US SEC yesterday, led by a glut of supply from Bank of Montreal
Credit Suisse steps in with straddles, leveraged returns and a bonus
Supply in the US public market remains healthy, with a further 21 products listed with the SEC on March 14. The structures on offer were varied, as was the spread of issuers
FSA more sanguine on structured deposits as Lord Turner scorns innovation
The UK Financial Services Authority has issued another massive document containing its thoughts on structured products and, notably, stating that its concerns about structured deposits are no longer critical