Catalan savings bank Caixa Penedes’ hopes to boost structured products sales with the opening of its first dedicated and independent private banking centre in the Aragon region of Spain.
According to Jaime Sahelices, head of Caixa Penedes’ private banking division in Aragon, “We will expand our private banking division and boost the sales of structured products with this new dedicated private banking office. Since 2006 our division has grown around 20%.” Caixa Penedés was the second largest overall issuer of structured deposits during 2006 despite having a presence in only four Spanish regions. It was surpassed by far national banks and saving banks such as Santander, BBVA and Caja Madrid.
“We are a small savings bank compared to some of the main structured products issuers but we are very active in this arena,” said Sahelices. “Our retail network issues several tranches of structured capital-guaranteed products every month. Our private banking division has a policy of issuing private banking products every month and a half. We also issue €500,000 tailored-made structures for some of our clients, the most popular structures being the combination of fixed-income plus guaranteed-fund and also growth and income structures linked to the performance of shares or indices.”
Caixa Penedes’ private banking division has been in operation for the last eighteen months and has grown its assets under management to €1.3bn. It has a customer base of more than 2,000 high-net individuals with a minimum capital investment of €300,000. Caixa Penedés sold €1.7bn in structured products in 2006, including retail and private banking SPs. The most popular products amongst its private banking division are structured deposits and funds, pension plans, structured insurance and stock portfolios.
Caixa Penedes’ private banking division is currently marketing Depósito Autocancelable Energías Renovables, a three-year capital-guaranteed deposit linked to the performance of a basket of energy shares comprising of SolarWorld, Vestas and Iberdrola. The structure of the product is based on a knock-out option whereby if the level of the basket is at or above its initial level on any of the annual observation dates, the product matures early and pays 110%, 120% or 130% respectively for each year of investment.
Click here to download a presentation of this product (in Spanish).
Click here to download a presentation about the new private banking centre (in Spanish).
