System overload

Private banks have struggled to cope with the settlement of thousands of knocked-out structured products, following market turmoil at the start of the year. And their clients are concerned about how losses are being calculated. Kathleen Kearney reports

Despite efforts by some private bankers to rein in the expectations of their clients in the last quarter of 2007, most failed to persuade their customers to pull out of risky equity structured products. The volume of structured products traded continued to soar in Asia in October and November, before easing off in December, which at the time was viewed as seasonal decline over the holiday period.

As a result, private bank clients in Asia were not ready for the stock market party to end last year