The market turbulence triggered by the new tariffs imposed by the US government put the focus firmly on structured products last week.
On Monday 7 April, nearly 1,300 callable bull/bear contracts (CBBCs) knocked out in Hong Kong SAR with more than half tracking the local Hang Seng Index (HSI), which registered its worst decline in a single day since 1997. Besides HSI, 71 Tencent-linked and 67 Alibaba (H Shares)-linked bull CBBCs were also called on Monday, as were 56 products tracking shares of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX).
However, having examined outstanding structured products linked to the S&P 500 that were issued in 2024 and 2025 to assess the impact of the recent sell-off, SRP analyses showed that only two percent out of a total of 3,064 products linked to the US benchmark breached their knock-in barriers by 10% or more since Thursday 3 April.
It’s anyone’s guess how long and deep [Trump] plans to dig his feet in and that uncertainty is feeding the selloff and volatility - Christopher Loudon, Raymond James
Christopher Loudon, head of structured products at Raymond James said: “It’s anyone’s guess how long and deep [Trump] plans to dig his feet in and that uncertainty is feeding the selloff and volatility.”
Turnover for structured products issued on the Belgian primary market reached €2.1 billion (US$2.3 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2024 – up 79% year-on-year (YoY), according to the latest figures released by the Belgian Structured Investment Products Association (Belsipa).
Eighty-eight percent of total sales for the quarter, or €1.9 billion, was invested in products linked to a fixed income underlying which increased by 181% YoY.
Meanwhile, taxation significantly influences retail investment decisions across European markets, according to Thomas Wulf, secretary general of the European Structured Investment Products Association (Eusipa).
“Key taxation aspects which massively affect investments mostly relate to capital gains tax rates and withholding tax on dividends/payouts,” said Wulf in response to a communication published by the European Commission on the Savings and Investments Union (SIU) strategy.
The second part of our overview of structured products in Europe showed that products linked to individual stocks and baskets of stocks now represent 50% of the market, a significant increase from 44% in 2023, while decrement underlyings re-gained meaningful traction during the year, reaching 41% market share out of all index-linked products – their highest level since 2021.
Sales of structured products sold in South Korea recorded 43% YoY growth in March boosted by equity-linked securities, which reached their highest quarterly sales since Q4 2023.
Amundi Finance Emissions issued the first ever product listed on the SRP database that offers access to the Euronext Souverainete Europeenne Decrement 5% Index, which mirrors the price movements of a static basket comprising 20 European companies involved in strategic sectors (industry, energy, digital, food, health and defense) that are contributing to the autonomy and resilience of Europe.
MB Structured Investments partnered with Barclays to launch around 20 products per month in 2024, many of which have performed well, according to the company’s managing director and owner Robbie Briginshaw.
“We champion an approach to clear, simple and transparent structured product design,” he told SRP.
In France, Hedios saw 20 of its products redeem early in 2024, including H Performance 36, which autocalled after its third year with a gain of 33%, outperforming its benchmark, the S&P Euro 50 Equal Weight Synthetic 5% Price Index, which increased by less than 16% over the same period while in Poland, Bank Millennium continues to focus on products linked to technology stocks as in times when this sector is developing so dynamically, these products have “great potential and give the client a chance to earn a large profit”, said Dariusz Wikliński, structured products dealer at the bank’s treasury department.
In an exclusive interview, Rico Blaser, CEO of Vestr, the Swiss fintech which offers a cloud-based software solution used by issuers of actively managed certificates (AMCs) told SRP that investors are starting to treat AMCs as a normal part of the toolkit, not just a niche offering.
“Switzerland remains our anchor market, where we have built deep roots, and for good reason,” he said.
Image: Gstudio/Adobe Stock.
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