Issuers change their tune on structured note disclosures

Despite initial panic, banks now say the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s disclosure requirements have benefited the structured note market, but concerns linger over the impact bank-specific funding practices could have. By Lukas Becker

Going by their prospectuses, the target investor for issuers of structured notes in the US used to be a pretty special individual – someone with the language skills of Samuel Johnson, the maths expertise of Bernhard Riemann and the physics nous of Robert Oppenheimer.

“Firms that were disclosing anything about pricing were doing it in a way that was virtually impenetrable. You had to have an otherworldly grasp of the English language, physics and maths to get anything that approximated an