Blossoming retail

Structured products are still big in Japan, despite the damage inflicted by the collapse of Lehman Brothers. While activity in the institutional market has yet to recover, public distribution channels brimming with simpler products are increasingly popular with the country’s retail and high-net-worth investors. By Joti Mangat

The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and subsequent market volatility took the Japanese structured products market from a high level of activity in several sectors to a relatively low level of simpler activity concentrated among private bank and retail distributors. On top of this, the historically high national savings rate fell to 23% in 2009, its lowest point for a decade, according to International Monetary Fund data, and demand for private placement products that were