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.
Structured Products -- A Short Video
Editor Richard Jory welcomes the Structured Products community to the magazine's new online home.
Corporate statement: German investment
With investor confidence being slowly rebuilt, UniCredit’s Juliane Bürger offers some valuable insight and advice to investors into choosing the right product, the advent of reverse convertible product offerings and the market volumes, now that it is…
Corporate statement: Listening and learning
After the seismic market shocks in 2008 and early 2009, structured products have remained widespread in the media focus. As summer holidays come to an end and schools reopen, we consider the lessons learned and what is on the curriculum for the year ahead
US Wrap: S&P 500 sandwiched between alternative choices
Two less traditional alternatives to the S&P 500 index have been released into the US market by Credit Suisse and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).
All four one
MSS Investments has enlisted the Swedish Export Credit Corporation as issuer of a six-year capped growth product linked to the performance of a basket of global indexes based on infrastructure, equities, fixed income and emerging markets
Autocalling China
Morgan Stanley has produced a two-year autocallable linked to the iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index Fund with a 10% buffer. Increases above the target level are not passed onto the investor
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…