Structured Products Asia: Professional investor definition sparks debate

The question of how to decide whether an investor is a professional and can therefore be a suitable target for more complex structured products was the leading debate at the Structured Products Asia conference, which took place on September 2 in the Renaissance Harbourview Hotel in Hong Kong. Richard Jory reports

If you can describe a structured product in three lines, you understand catastrophic loss or how much you could lose, and you know why you are buying this investment, then you can be a professional investor, at least according to Chak Wong, professor of financial practices at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, speaking on the opening, regulatory panel at the Structured Products Asia conference in Hong Kong on September 2. The distinction is either extremely important, or almost meaningless