Structured Products Europe Awards 2015: call for entries

Interviews for the Structured Products Europe awards start in September. Find out how your firm can enter

Interviews for the Structured Products Europe awards will begin in September. All entries should be submitted via our online entry portal no later than Monday, September 14.

Please submit your entries via the portal at www.structuredproductsawards.com/europe.

Applications should clearly state which categories you are entering and include specific information on your structured products expertise in European regions over the preceding 12 months. We will conduct meetings - by telephone and in person - during September.

Importantly, all pitch documents and initial interviews for this year's awards will be treated as off the record, in line with our parent title Risk magazine's awards for the global derivatives markets. Running the awards on this basis should give entrants the best opportunity to showcase everything they are most proud of from the past 12 months. In turn, it gives the editorial judging panel a chance to reward entrants on the basis of a greater breadth of information.

The pitch documents can be structured as entrants wish, but they should aim to include milestones from the previous 12 months, a thematic discussion of the firm's achievements in that time, and case studies that demonstrate how particular problems were overcome - how a certain deal was structured or where you believe superior client service was provided, for instance.

The pitch is just a first chance to put your story across, and should not be so detailed that it becomes a disincentive to enter. As a rule of thumb, six to 12 pages is the optimum length.

Client references will form the basis of all awards decisions. Please aim to include the details (names, email addresses and phone numbers) of at least seven or eight clients who you have worked with extensively over the past 12 months and who are happy to be contacted. As with the submissions themselves, the details of client calls will be treated as strictly off the record.

There are some category changes to highlight this year. First, we have combined the credit, rates, commodities and inflation product awards into a new Ficc products provider of the year award, in order to incorporate three new categories: risk manager of the year, retail structurer of the year and institutional structurer.

As per last year, the categories also include an award for the overall structured products house of the year for Europe. This will be judged on the basis of a structurers' quality of service across multiple regions in all asset classes, acknowledging cross-border as well as domestic product creation. Your submissions should include comprehensive information on your innovations in the cross-border market and in any national jurisdiction in which you do business.

Our country awards meanwhile are open to financial institutions that create and/or distribute structured products to investors, whether this is at the retail, high-net-worth or private banking level. These awards are open to distributors and banks that have created especially innovative products for the individual markets. The countries we will review are: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, as well as the Benelux, Central and Eastern Europe and Nordic regions.

Finally, we have split the technology category this year in order to recognise excellence in technology provision to the structured products industry from both banks and independent software vendors.

The awards will be announced in the November issue of Structured Products and presented at the Structured Products Europe conference at The Jumeirah - Carlton Tower, London on the evening of November 19.

Good luck.

 

Structurer awards

• House of the year

• Risk manager of the year

• Retail structurer of the year

• Institutional structurer

• Equity derivatives house of the year

• FICC products house of the year

• Deal of the year

Specialist awards

• Bank technology provider of the year

• Technology vendor of the year

• Index provider of the year

• ETF house of the year

Country awards

• Benelux

• Central and Eastern Europe

• France

• Germany

• Italy

• Nordic region

• Spain

• Switzerland

• UK