Hunt for returns brings product innovation

Investors’ desire for higher-yielding products brought about a boom in securitisation and attention is now turning to the structured products market. But the credit derivatives market remains in its infancy

Pity the South African institutional or retail investor, both of which face the same challenges that are now confronting traditional long-only investors the world over. Low inflation and interest rates are depressing returns in safe-haven assets such as government and other top-rated bonds, while the consensus still seems to have it that the outlook for stock markets is anaemic.

If all that weren’t dispiriting enough, South African investors have their own local handicap to cope with in the form