Latest: BBVA latest to join Swiss trade association

BBVA has become the latest member of the Swiss Structured Products Association (SSPA), which now has 47 members from financial entities across the entire structured products value chain including issuers, trading and buy-side platforms, intermediaries and associations.

The SSPA represents 95% of the Swiss structured products market volume.

The Spanish bank has joined the association following several years of efforts to expand its range of investment solutions and its market reach as it seeks to become a global player in structured investment products. It launched a factory set up after the arrival of Roberto Vila as global head of equity in mid-2019 and now under the leadership of Nicolas Allano, as the head of investment solutions within the global markets business.

Switzerland is one of BBVA's key growth markets in Europe but in recent years. In recent years, the bank's range of products and capabilities have grown with the association recording 'a very significant increase in the number of Swiss entities that arrange investment products on different asset classes with BBVA'.

This activity has resulted in 'a huge increase in the number and volume of products issued' by the Spanish bank in a market that is used by many issuers to offer institutional investment and private banking products worldwide.

By joining the SSPA network, BBVA will be able 'to participate in a community of experts with an incredible breadth of knowledge in relation to the distribution of structured products in Switzerland', said Georg von Wattenwyl (pictured), president of the SSPA.

'The international expertise of its team will greatly contribute to the knowledge exchange within the SSPA,' said von Wattenwyl.

The Swiss trade body, which reported a 20% fall in turnover YoY for Q4 2023, previously onboarded FinIQ and Vizibility as partner members in November 2023.

Luma partners with BNY Mellon’s Pershing

US multi-issuer, structured products and annuities platform Luma Financial Technologies and global provider of financial business solutions BNY Mellon’s Pershing are collaborating to give financial advisors access to the platform's annuity management tools and functionalities.

Advisors using Pershing’s custodial platform NetX360 ®+ will be able to access Luma’s educational materials, analytics and suitability tools to help streamline and manage sales activities for all annuity product types.

Luma’s Learning Center offers advisors personalised education tools in addition to National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) product training. The single sign-on set up will enable users of the NetX360+ platform to access annuity research capabilities as well as comparison features to help advisors matching products with their client’s individual goals.

Pershing will transmit brokerage account details to Luma, and Luma will provide brokerage account, product, and user information to 'Subscribe', Pershing’s proprietary annuity application. 

“Offering our clients easy access to Luma provides an enhanced annuity and retirement planning experience,” said Sareena Dalla Brookshire (right), chief product officer, BNY Mellon’s Pershing.

Tim Bonacci, CEO and president at Luma Financial Technologies, said: 'Our primary mission has always been to empower the industry and financial advisors to better understand, objectively analyze, purchase, and manage products on behalf of their clients.'

DLC turnover up by 56% MoM, local banks propel structured warrants turnover

The Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) has reported a total trading turnover of S$181m (US$132.9m) in March, up 56% MoM, for daily leverage certificates (DLCs).

The increase in turnover was mainly driven by Singapore single stocks (+64% MoM) including Sembcorp, Venture, SATS and CapitaLand Investment which recorded increased activity and emerged as the top traded single-stock underlyings by turnover in March.

Index underlyings saw the highest retail trading activity with the Hang Seng Tech Index (HSTECH), Hand Seng Index (HIS) and Straits Times Index (STI) being the most traded underlyings by retail investors – the domestic STI hit a six-month high as Singapore equities soared due to the Fed's upbeat rate cut outlook.

The AIA Group Limited stock emerged in the Top Gainer underlyings chart for both DLCs and structured warrants (SWs) following a bearish outlook due to higher medical claims post-pandemic temporarily impacting the company's profitability.

As of 28 Mar 2024, Singapore underlyings captured 61% of DLC open interest, with Keppel and City Development emerging as the top two underlyings by open interest.

SWs recorded total turnover of S$353m in March 2024, +25% MoM. Warrants with Singapore underlyings saw the highest increase in trading turnover (+40% MoM) driven by increased trading activity around local bank underlyings such as DBS, OCBC and UOB.

The top five traded underlyings by retail were HSI, DBS, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), OCBC and Nikkei 225.  Meituan remained as the top-traded single stock underlying in March after benefitting from tail winds following a 22.6% rise in quarterly revenue.

Prime Unicorn Index launches gauge tracking top venture-backed private US firms

Prime Unicorn Index, a private market benchmark provider, has launched the Prime Unicorn 30 Index, a modified market cap index that tracks the valuations of the top 30 US-based private venture-backed companies valued at US$1 billion or more, known as unicorns.

Through a partnership with Caplight Technologies, both the Prime Unicorn Composite Index and the new Prime Unicorn 30 Index will incorporate secondary transaction data, in addition to financing data obtained from primary documents that verify issued shares and the most recent series price per share. At the end of the first quarter of 2024, the components of the Prime 30 Unicorn Index were valued at more than US$376 billion.

The Prime Unicorn Composite Index and the Prime Unicorn 30 Index are designed to aid in the creation of new financial products and as a performance benchmark including structured notes, total return swaps and futures contracts.

The price changes of component companies are derived from a wide variety of publicly available information sources associated with company transactions, filings, secondary market transactions, and other disclosures. Both Indexes provide empirical data to asset managers and financial advisors that make it possible to track the performance of private capital markets. They are priced daily and reconstituted quarterly.

Ross Barrett, a co-founder of the Prime Unicorn Index, said: 'By creating indexes that accurately capture the changing values in this sector, we aim to facilitate the ability of financial institutions to design and offer products that enable institutional and other investors to participate in the value creation opportunities embodied in these innovative enterprises.'

UBS to acquire CS’s Japan wealth arm through JV partner

UBS' joint venture in Japan with Sumitomo Mitsui will take on the assets, staff and clients of Credit Suisse's wealth management business in the country, following the merger of the Swiss lenders last year.

UBS SuMi Trust Wealth Management will absorb the wealth management assets of Credit Suisse Securities (Japan), with the transfer to be completed by the end of June.

Credit Suisse’s employees in the wealth management division, as well as its client advisors, will join UBS SuMi Trust. After the integration, the capital structure of UBS SuMi TRUST Wealth Management will remain unchanged with UBS SJ retaining 51% stake and SuMi TRUST Holdings keeping its 49% stake.

UBS Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group established UBS SuMi TRUST Wealth Management through capital and business alliance for wealth management business in Japan, and began operations on August 10, 2021.

Since then, UBS SuMi TRUST Wealth Management has been a top brand in the global wealth management business and has been providing wealth management services from UBS Group as well as Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, one of the largest domestic trust banks has provided clients with a wide range of products and services including structured products.