Latest: BNP Paribas doubles down on UK focus

BNP Paribas has joined the UK Structured Products Association (UKSPA) as a new member, bringing the total membership of the association to 19 firms.

The French bank is an established issuer of structured products for retail distributors, banks and institutional investors in the UK market. SRP data shows a slight dip in activity in 2021 which resulted in the bank falling out of the top 10 issuer ranking.

BNP Paribas has a long history of serving clients in the UK - Mike Bayley

Year to date, BNP Paribas a couple of positions on the back of 11 products worth an estimated US$24.4 million which add to 71 live products mostly distributed by Meteor AM (56/US$135m), Idad (six/US$11.1m) and Investec (three/US$17.8m).

Zak De Mariveles, Chairman of the UKSPA, said the addition of BNP Paribas as a new member will help meet one of the association’s key objectives: provide a communal voice for structured products in the UK, to lead the way in driving best practice and to support and educate the wider investment community.

Mike Bayley (pictured), who joined from Société Générale (SG) in September 2021 in a newly created role as head of equity derivatives & solutions, institutions & distribution, UK, to bolster BNP Paribas’ presence in the market, said that joining the association reflects ‘the redoubling of our commitment to and focus on the UK market’.

‘BNP Paribas has a long history of serving clients in the UK and recognises that collaboration across providers to maintain a transparent and accessible structured products market can contribute to delivering the best investment journey for investors,’ he said.

BNY Mellon’s Pershing to offer structured notes, market-linked CDs via Halo

Clearing and custody services BNY Mellon’s Pershing will include Halo’s independent structured notes platform in its Pershing NetX360 offering access to registered independent advisors (RIA) and broker-dealer (BD) firms via the multi-issuer platform’s technology, analytics, controls, and tools to trade and manage structured notes.

Halo grew by 113% in 2021 as more advisors recognized the benefits of protective investments to navigate market uncertainty and address retirement savings shortfalls, according to Jason Barsema (right), co-founder & president of Halo.

‘Financial advisors are constrained by investment choices and fragmented trading systems, hurting their ability to build their businesses,’ he said. ‘Financial advisors on Pershing’s platform now have more choices and opportunities to deliver a differentiated client experience to fuel their growth.’

Halo has achieved a significant number of milestones over the past 24 months, including closing a US$100+ million Series C round of funding, as well as onboarding more than 40 global banks and carriers, said Barsema.

Morningstar goes with Cboe as preferred index distributor

Cboe Global Markets has entered into an agreement with Morningstar Indexes to begin publishing real-time, intraday values for Morningstar-branded indices on its Cboe Global Indices Feed as the preferred third-party distributor of Morningstar's full range of branded indices.

Under the new collaboration, Cboe Global Indices Feed will be designed to provide market participants globally with access to all Morningstar indices through a secure global network, delivered both on-premise and through Cboe Global Cloud, a real-time cloud-based data streaming service.

Cboe will distribute real-time values for an initial 50 Morningstar indices, including Morningstar's range of well-known thematic, Economic Moat Focus and ESG indices, as well as the recently introduced Morningstar Broad Style Indexes. This initial dissemination will begin on July 1 via the MSTAR Channel, with additional indices being launched on the MSTARC Channel at a later date.

Additional indices are planned to migrate to Cboe Global Indices Feed in a phased rollout over the coming months. With the completion of this migration, planned for the fourth quarter, Morningstar's complete suite of branded indices will be available through Cboe Global Indices Feed.

‘As one of the fastest growing global index providers, we are working hard to extend our capabilities to a much larger span of investors and clients,’ said Ron Bundy (above-right), president of Morningstar Indexes Group at Morningstar.

Luma expands annuities market reach

US multi-issuer annuities and structured products platform Luma Financial Technologies has added several new firms from the annuities market to use the Luma platform.

Some of the 18 new firms partnering with the platform include American Portfolios, Ash Brokerage, Madison Avenue Securities, The BluePrint Insurance Services, The Investment Center, Wedbush Wealth Management and Wentworth Financial Partners.

‘While annuities are not a new asset class, they have greatly evolved over the years and are growing in popularity, especially considering the recent uncertainty and volatility in financial markets,’ said Keith Burger (right), head of distribution at Luma Financial Technologies.

Luma's expansion into the annuity space has been supported by a number of platform enhancements to serve this product set including the launch of Luma Compare and Replacement Analysis, which provides users with comparison functionality, streamlined processes, training and compliance systems, alongside a range of annuity carriers.

DelphX completes first CPO, CRN issuance

US firm DelphX Capital Markets has completed the first issuance of its proprietary Collateralised Put Options (CPOs) and Collateralised Reference Notes (CRNs), marking the first institutional issue of this new class of structured products.

The inaugural transactions were completed with custodian BNY Mellon, placement agent LPS Capital, and two undisclosed institutional investor accounts.

Following this "go-live" set of transactions DelphX is seeking a full product roll out via bond dealers who have been monitoring the development of these products. The company also expects strong interest from financial entities who cannot or will not utilise CDS or similar derivatives due to their investment mandates but are able to use DelphX CPO and CRN products.

The timing of the launch coincides with a sharp increase in transaction volume of the closest competing financial vehicle, credit default swaps (CDS), which Tradeweb reported rose to US$811 billion in March 2022, up from US$330 billion in February 2022.

Recent growth in this market represents a major acceleration from 2021, when global dealer banks' outstanding notionals of over-the-counter CDS grew 5% to $8.8 trillion (as reported by the Bank for International Settlements).

The DelphX products are aimed at investors seeking risk mitigation and yield-enhancement securities fundamentally improved over CDS and other existing structured products in the credit space - collateralised put options (CPOs) provide default protection for underlying corporate, municipal and sovereign securities; while collateralised reference notes (CRNs) that enable credit investors to take on the default exposure of an underlying security in exchange for enhanced yield.