Conor O'Donnell, a former director of structuring at StoneHedge Partners, and Mark Tully, former executive director at Morgan Capital Advisors' (MCA) have launched Causeway Securities Limited in Belfast as a fully regulated brokerage firm by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

"We have chosen to have our main office in Belfast following many large financial and legal firms such Citi and Tullet Prebon," Mark Tully, co-founder and director, Causeway Securities. "For us, this was due to costs being very competitive compared to London. We also have a presence in London, Dubai and South Africa."

Causeway Securities - which has just gone live - will sell structured financial products linked to major global equity indices such as the FTSE 100, S&P 500, and Eurostoxx 50.

"However, there is scope to expand the exposure to other assets that can deliver income to the end client, and allows us to also offer protection without giving up upside," said Tully. "We have used Investec's EVEN 30 index in the past and we think this kind of volatility controlled indices can add value to investors. We will look for opportunities to deliver income and protection."

According to Tully, Causeway will offer structured products for international offshore clients living in Europe, Middle East and Africa (Emea) with a focus on the offshore advisory market as opposed to direct sale.

"We have done this for many years but we saw an opportunity to do it ourselves," said Tully. "The investor profile our target market, the offshore segment, is that of a retail investor which is seeking a degree of protection or income. We will to keep our products fairly simple and straight forward but obviously there is room for more bespoke type of structures. We are planning to build our initial offering around capital protected notes and autocall and Phonenix payoff profiles as investors are familiar with them."

According to Tully, receiving additional support from Invest NI, the Northern Ireland regional business development agency, and the calibre of staff available there, has been key as through its Dubai office and clients Causeway Securities will have access to a number of family offices, wealth managers and private banks based in the Emea region.

Causeway Securities applied for FCA authorisation some time ago and when it was granted the partners went ahead and capitalised on having full regulatory clearance, according to Tully.

"We are working with a number of banks to develop a range of products," said Tully. "Our criteria to select counterparties for our products will be the credit rating, as well as their capacity to deliver competitive pricing. For capital protected products we tend to seek banks that have good funding and for the capital at risk products those with competitive pricing."

The new structured products specialist provider will also focus initially on building its offering and add more banks to its pool of counterparties. "We are positive that we can build a competitive offering that delivers value to our clients," said Tully.

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