Structured products
WHAT IS THIS? Structured products are investments that have multiple components. For retail investors, the most common form is a bond plus an option – these tend to be standardised, sold in small tickets and large volumes. Managing the risks of large structured products portfolios is one of the biggest challenges dealers face.
Lee appointed CEO of SG Private Banking in China
Société Générale promotes Hsiao-Yun Lee to the role of CEO in its private banking arm in China
Vontobel comes back in fashion
The continued success of its luxury goods certificates has inspired Vontobel to come out with version four
German recovery faces constraints
A constrained recovery
Exchange-traded product volumes up 13% in 2010
Fixed-income exchange-traded products made money, investors turned to gold and a decline in assets followed falls in the equity markets in the first half of this year
Lookback: The Which way
An irreverent take on events of the last month, including the Which confusion over structured products, ETF trading, S&P's benchmarks, a Swiss preference for capital protection and more capital gains tax in the UK
Lee reappears at Deutsche Bank as head of GMIP and db-X, Asia
Chris Lee has taken over global market investment products and the db-x division in Asia for Deutsche Bank. Formerly head of the structured products group at UBS, Lee started at Deutsche in the last week of June.
Italy’s new structured products landscape
The collapse of Lehman Brothers, a bank that had produced massive amounts of index-linked products for the Italian insurance sector, left retail investors weary of structured investments and led to a big regulatory shake-up. What role can structured…
Skandia offers the insurance route
Global savings and insurance heavyweight, Skandia, has been distributing structured products in Sweden since 2005 when it launched two products with Skandiabanken as issuer. Since then the Swedish branch has gone on to use various other intermediaries…
Seeking simplicity
As the Benelux region’s structured product market emerges shaken from the global financial crisis, a focus on education is needed to rebuild investor confidence and to make sure structured products are being sold in an appropriate manner. Clare Dickinson…
World Cup trades hit fever pitch
As the dust settles on the World Cup and those that bought televisions on the basis that their national football team would win the tournament wonder how to match their rash expenditure with reality, Richard Jory reviews the copious research supporting…
ETFs: simple, or simply confusing?
Exchange-traded funds first appeared 20 years ago as transparent, easy to understand alternatives to actively managed funds. But as they have developed some of this transparency and simplicity has been lost. The first Structured Products ETF survey asks…
Market snapshot
A dramatic increase in the notional issuance of accelerated growth products in the US has catapulted Bank of America to the top of the issuance charts
Locking in principal protection
Merchant Capital is offering UK investors an at-risk growth product linked that locks in capital protection should the daily closing be at or above 110% of the initial level. Morgan Stanley is the issuer.
A complex payoff
The Royal Bank of Scotland has created a complicated retail structured product based on volatility for the Australian market and teamed up with National Australia Bank to help with distribution. Capital for the seven-year product is protected at maturity…
Uncertainty over FDIC insurance is affecting structured products industry
The US government is currently deciding whether to permanently increase the deposit insurance cover to $250,000 per depositor. The uncertainty is creating problems for the certificate of deposit industry.
Higher insurance premiums for structured products make RDR compliance difficult
Some professional indemnity insurers are charging higher premiums for structured products or are refusing to cover them. This makes it difficult for IFAs to offer them to their clients
S&P creates taxable municipal bond index
Standard and Poor's has created a taxable municipal bond index to give investors access to this low default risk, high return bond class.
Malaysian investors hunt for hybrids
Hybrid structures are increasingly popular in Malaysia as investors look to keep the cost of hedging down and moving away from capital protected products
Eurozone volatility helps German structurers
Volatility across the eurozone is making autocall products popular in the German market, where structurers can offer attractive returns
UBS reverse convertible index offers deposit-beating returns
UBS has created a reverse convertible index to offer German investors income which beats the return on bank deposits
Nasdaq creates its first sharia indexes
Nasdaq has launched two sharia-compliant indexes, the first in a family of indexes which it intends to launch.
UK investors swap FTSE 100 ETFs for emerging markets
Investors withdraw from ETFs based on the FTSE 100 in the first quarter of the year, preferring investments based on emerging markets and the US and European becnhmarks.