FSMA

25 Sep 2024

Belgian sales hit low, strong recovery expected

Despite slow sales in Q2, the market is on track to bounce back strongly as banks have increased their offering to absorb the €22 billion government bond redemption.

01 Aug 2024

Belgium market review, Q2 2024: sales volume falls, indices return

Rates remained the preferred underlying asset of the Belgian investor while products linked to single equity indices increased their market share by almost 20 percentage points QoQ.

01 Jul 2024

SRP in brief: cost efficient

Regulatory developments were in focus in Europe last week, while South Korea’s autocallable product sales rebounded.

25 Jun 2024

FSMA advocates value for money, structured products become simpler

The Belgian regulator did not ban any structured products in 2023 as they were deemed less complex than in previous years.

18 Oct 2023

FSMA study: riskier products carry higher costs

Research by the Belgian regulator found that non-capital protected products, those denominated in foreign currencies and structures linked to indices have higher costs associated to them.

27 Jun 2023

FSMA bans five products, targets crypto investments

The Belgian regulator deemed five structured products linked to proprietary indices ‘too complex’ for retail investors in 2022.

10 May 2023

Belgium Q1 2023: record tickets, fixed income and capital protection

Volumes reached an eight-year high in the Belgian market which recorded the best-selling product of all time during the quarter.

22 Feb 2023

Belgian insurer partners with Goldman, tracks ESG benchmark

Ethias has returned to the Belgian market after an absence of 13 years.

30 Jan 2023

Belgium Q4 2022: KBC is back, or are they?

Sales volumes in the Belgian market reached levels not seen since Q1 2020.

23 Nov 2022

Belgium 9M 2022: FSMA says no to house-indices

Belgian investors opt for interest-linked structures as the regulator put a stop to complex indices.

29 Sep 2022

Looking back: a ban that changed almost nothing

The introduction of a commission ban in the Netherlands almost a decade ago took away ‘perverse incentives’ for intermediaries but the real change came with transparency, disclosure and standardisation.

12 Jul 2021

SRP in brief: finally coming home

As the UK licks its Euro 2020 football (soccer) wounds, the structured product market goes from strength to strength on the back of investor interest shifting to these products.