In a week that saw SRP track several high-profile appointments, Absa expanded its Shariah-compliant structured products offering to Kenya, while China’s CITIC listed its first derivative warrants on HKEX.

UBS made a number of appointments within its global markets franchise to strengthen its sales capabilities, according to a memo seen by SRP.

Eric Lafon was appointed global head of structured product, structured finance & solution sales in a new global market senior team which also includes Adrian Boehler as global head of macro sales. Tom Woodhouse will be leading the Europe, Midde East & Africa (Emea) rates and fixed income solutions teams, reporting to Boehler and Andres Schmitz who remains Emea head of execution sales. Greg Poole, global head of the UBS knowledge network will also report into Boehler.

Also, in Emea, Mike Sales retained his role as Emea head of franchise sales with Chris Hunt, head of global markets client office reporting to Sales.

Kenneth Pang, the former global co-head of investment and markets at Credit Suisse has been appointed as head of Asia equities at US hedge fund Millennium Management. Pang, who will be based in Hong Kong SAR, replaces Vikesh Kotecha who has joined Citadel Securities as Asia Pacific head, also in Hong Kong SAR.

In the UK, Mike Hodgson parted ways with Schroders where he was most recently head of risk managed investments (RMI) and structured funds based in London. Hodgson spent 25 years at Schroders. He first joined the asset manager in 1987 and, after spells at Citigroup and ABN Amro, returned in 2011 to help establish the RMI business.

Following Hodgson’s departure, Schroders announced four internal transfers within the RMI team including Thomas Williams, who has taken on the role of head of solutions structuring and trading; Scott Thomson who was appointed as head of equity income solutions; and Marcus Durell who is the new head of equity, foreign exchange (FX), and seed capital solutions. The trio report to Darren Bustin, the new head of solutions capabilities.

Euronext reported new listings of warrants and certificates in January, at 35,448 products, increased by 42% month-on-month. The value traded reached €554.8m (US$ 474.14m) during the month (Dec 23: €423.8m) while the number of trades stood at 134,757 (98,243).

With our rapid growth in recent years and leading position in mainland China, we wanted to expand our business in the Hong Kong derivative warrants market and strengthen our international presence - Charles Chung, CITIC CLSA

Staying with structured warrants, CITIC Securities Brokerage (HK) Limited listed its first batch of derivatives warrants on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX) on 1 March.

The offshore arm of China’s largest securities house by assets, also known as CITIC CLSA, has been working on the launch since 2021 and obtained the licence approval from HKEX as a listed structured product issuer earlier this year.

“With our rapid growth in recent years and leading position in mainland China, we wanted to expand our business in the Hong Kong derivative warrants market and strengthen our international presence,” Charles Chung, associate director, equity derivatives listed products trading at CITIC CLSA, told SRP.

Turnover of structured products sold in Switzerland reached CHF41 billion (US$46.5 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the latest figures of the Swiss Structured Products Association. Compared to the previous quarter, turnover increased by 2.5% although it was down 20% year-on-year.

For the full year 2023, turnover amounted to CHF180 billion (2022: CHF221 billion).

More product news came from Absa Bank, which expanded its offering of Shariah-compliant structured products to Kenya. The South African bank issued two capital protected deposits linked to the BNP Europe Islamic Select 50 PR Index, which are targeted at its private wealth clients and require a minimum subscription of £35,000 or US$35,000. British brokerage Causeway Securities acts as a third-party distributor.

Over in the US, Barclays faces a proposed class action by shareholders who accused the bank of securities fraud related to the over-issuance of structured notes worth US$17.7 billion.

US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that shareholders adequately alleged that Barclays' failure to disclose the absence of internal controls that might have caught five years of errant debt sales was a ‘material omission of fact’.

The ruling also gave way for shareholders trying to prove that Barclays and several officials including former CEO Jes Staley were ‘actionably reckless’ in assuring that the bank complied with federal securities laws even as it ‘blindly’ sold the structured notes.

Also in the US, NewEdge Wealth re-launched its structured note income portfolio (SNIP) to capitalise on the Russell 2000 rally through a separately managed account (SMA).

The portfolio management team of the independent financial adviser used the Russell 2000’s Q4 rally to sell a few notes that were quickly nearing their maturity date and within 10% of a breach of protection level, according to NewEdge’s Michaelangelo Dooley.

Image: Coachwood/Adobe Stock.

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