In the second part of an interview with structured products specialist firm Lombard Investment Solutions, the two co-founders and managing directors, Charif Ben Romdane (pictured) and Nicolas Indych – formerly of Commerzbank – discuss the lack of appeal of issuing platforms for some buy-side players, the firm’s offering and why structured products have a place in any investment portfolio.
Do you use issuer platforms? What’s is Lombard’s view on automatisation? Charif Ben Romdane: Nicolas and I we have kept the business model that we had at Commerzbank. We don’t believe in the issuer platform business model. I don’t think it is adapted to what we are trying to do. We are against the automatisation of our business. We believe our competitive advantage is our ability to provide a banking service to clients in small platforms, with flexibility as well as