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.
Moody’s widens op risk definition for securitisation
Ratings agency breaks down boundaries of counterparty, credit and liquidity risk
US investors still sensitive to counterparty risk
Counterparty risk remains a dominant theme for US investors, who are keen to analyse issuer credit ratings and credit default swap levels before buying a structured product. Richard Jory asks senior US industry figures how attitudes to counterparty…
Market snapshot
Tim Mortimer of Future Value Consultants reviews the product preferences in the US and UK structured products markets
Conservatism still reigns in wake of crisis
The private banking division of Credit Suisse is still seeing the impact of the financial crisis on its investors’ requirements. Fixed-income structured products remain popular but the low interest rate environment is still affecting the types of…
Barrier remains intact
The 50% barrier in the Investec Capital Protected FTSE 100 Income Plan 1 has remained in place since the launch of the product last year. Those opting for monthly or quarterly payments will have received their coupons, and the same looks likely for those…
Trade of the month: Secondary pricing and fair value
As with any competitive market, fee levels are influenced to a large degree by the market, since a product cannot normally hide high fees and appear competitive.
Product performance
Based on the FTSE 100, this month FVC compares the virtues of three products structures common to the UK market that link to the FTSE 100
Rising to the technology challenge
The structured product market is staggering to its feet after the financial crisis dealt it a near fatal blow. Simple payout structures, shorter terms and capital protection kept the market alive, then investors looked to structures with payouts linked…
Funds find favour
Funds are the structure of choice this year, as the exchange-traded funds business grows and structured product houses look for fund solutions. But the fund industry has its limitations, not least because of the complexity of structuring and the expense…
Advisers Asset Management ahead of the game
US distributor Advisors Asset Management made the right call in choosing principal protection over reverse convertibles before the economic storm, and is now seeing a push towards equity, income and interest-rate products.
Americas Report: Back from the breech
The structured products market in the US has been through some lows in the past year. The shock sometimes was so great that the lifeblood of the market, the reverse convertible, was withdrawn completely. It was pointless flogging a product that required…
Increased volatility could help structure attractive returns
Widening bond spreads and market volatility will result in more interesting structured products, according to Morgan Stanley. The spikes in volatility that followed news of a hung parliament in the UK and the disagreements over a bail-out package for…
UBS fines for misselling structured products could be first of many
UBS has come under fire in a series of court cases in the US for inappropriate sales of Lehman Brothers principal-protected notes and a failure to inform retail investors properly of the risks involved. More cases are likely.
DnB Nor returns to the Norwegian structured products market
Nordic bank DnB Nor will resume distribution of structured products to high-net-worth investors and affluent retail clients in Norway on May 25. The two new products, translated roughly as “Global ‘Trigg’ (safe)” and “Top Norden” (top selected stocks…
Barclays says kick-outs remain popular despite ISA confusion
Barclays Wealth says kick-out structures remain popular in the UK, despite the recent confusion over Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) eligibility. Barclays is reissuing two kick-out structures to UK investors.
S&P 500 index licensed to European ETF providers
Standard & Poor’s has opened its benchmark US index, the S&P 500, to seven exchange-traded fund (ETF) providers in Europe, meeting demand from a range of investors to be able to invest in US equities as the market recovers from recession.
FTSE targets UK pensions industry with defined contribution index
FTSE has created an index to help asset managers and retail investors navigate the pensions market. The index provider has partnered with London-based data services firm Pension DCisions to create the first benchmark for the UK’s defined contributions…
ETNs come to Finland with listing on the Nasdaq Helsinki
The Nordic market has been slower to pick up on the trend for exchange-traded products than its southern European counterparts but progress comes with Swedish bank Handelsbanken’s listing of Finland’s first exchange-traded notes (ETN) on the Nasdaq OMX…
Société Générale launches commodities ETN platform
As appetite for listed products and the transparency they offer increases, Société Générale (SG) has launched its first exchange-traded notes (ETN) on the London Stock Exchange, giving investors access to single commodities in a variety of currencies.