Marex props up structured products offering

Marex Solutions, the specialist derivative solutions division of Marex Spectron, has launched Agile, a new point and click meta tool designed to offer its clients "transparency and functionalities" that will simplify the way structured products are transacted and managed through their life-cycle.

The app is initially geared towards the firm's corporate clients who use structured products to hedge their market risk on commodities and FX, and is delivered "free of charge" to its clients, according to Nilesh Jethwa (pictured), Marex Solutions chief executive.

"Pricing of structured products is still done through chat or email conversations involving a number of parties (sales, structuring, trading...) which can take up to an hour or longer if there are no issues about what the client wants," said Jethwa. "The new tool enables clients to get an idea of what they want and what is possible from a product / features perspective before requesting a quote. Clients can price structures within seconds and the documentation explaining the trade is also generated automatically.

This is not new in the structured products market and the market has seen an influx of pricing facilities within single- and multi-issuer platforms but for Marex is "an improvement" to its traditional commodities coverage as clients will be able to see an overview of each product showing payout and behaviour; perform real-time pricing on the web and mobile; access a portfolio dashboard showing positions, margin status; and breakdown of positions showing trade by trade secondary market bid-offers; as well as exposure and scenario analysis; and a 'Feature Lab' where users will be able to give feedback on new potential app features and suggestions.

"We're not using this tool to just sell products but as an educational tool that will help clients to better understand tailored products and deploy them more effectively in their portfolios," said Jethwa, adding that the new tool also offers a portfolio management functionality providing more visibility and granularity to monitor products' life cycle and see the value of any portfolio at any given time.

"Clients can also test different scenarios to see how market moves could impact their portfolio so that clients can anticipate and react to the market."

The launch of the new tool makes part of Marex's plan to bring transparency to the way structured products are transacted and dispel any myths around these products, according to Jethwa.

"Structured products have been criticised for lacking transparency but with these new tool we can offer as much, if not more, transparency than the exchange would," said Jethwa. "We think this tool will have a positive impact both from an educational but also from a reputational perspective."

Jethwa believes that the market is working hard to empower distributors and end investors, and to show that structured products are flexible and can add value to any investment portfolio.

"Our philosophy is to educate our clients and as they get more confident this will translate into more activity and, hopefully, volumes transacted with Marex," said Jethwa. "We want to be partners with our clients, providing them with relevant services and tools to increase their trust in us, their confidence in deploying the right solutions for their business and to ultimately achieve the best result for their portfolio."

Marex Solutions launched a structured investment product business line which will comprise a catalogue of structured notes backed by Marex Spectron or third-party corporates in early March. The firm also partnered with new digital structured products multi-issuer platform (MIP) ResonanceX, and Nivaura, a fintech offering modular digital platform solutions, to launch the first fully automated structured note which will be cleared, settled and registered on a public blockchain.

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