Single Platform Investment Repackaging Entity (Spire) has incorporated several Nomura subsidiaries including Nomura International, Nomura Financial Products Europe, Nomura Singapore Limited, Nomura Securities and Nomura Bank (Luxembourg) to its multi-dealer repackaging programme bringing the number of dealers on the platform to 15.
The Spire programme allows for repackaged notes arranged by the platform’s dealer-members to be issued in standardised formats and offer access to a variety of underlying collateral assets and customisable payoffs. The platform was launched to bring transparency, liquidity and simplicity for institutional investors looking to buy repackaged structured products.
To date, in excess of €20 billion equivalent has been issued to major UK, European and Asian institutional investors since the programme was launched.
The Spire platform was established by BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and J.P. Morgan in May 2017. Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Crédit Agricole CIB and Morgan Stanley joined in 2018 with Natixis, BofA Securities Europe, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Société Générale and NatWest Markets joining in 2019.
Bloomberg teams up with Rockefeller AM on ESG high quality low vol strategy
Bloomberg and Rockefeller Asset Management have partnered to launch of the Bloomberg Rockefeller US All Cap Multi-Factor ESG Improvers Index, which is available through the Bloomberg Terminal.
The index combines Bloomberg’s renowned risk model, data, and index capabilities with 40 years of ESG expertise from Rockefeller Asset Management. The index ranks a company’s improvement in performance on material ESG issues relative to industry peers in contrast with other indices that emphasise screening around ESG leaders or laggards.
The new multi-factor index combines the Rockefeller ESG Improvers Score, an uncorrelated and proprietary alpha enhancing factor, with quality and low volatility factors to pursue outperformance over traditional market-cap weighted indices with low tracking error and minimal sector or other factor deviations.
The index also incorporates shareholder engagement techniques that help create shareholder value and drive positive change. The index is administered by Bloomberg’s UK Financial Conduct Authority authorised benchmark administrator, Bloomberg Index Services Limited (BISL) which is also responsible for calculation, governance and provision of the index.
Hang Seng rolls out smart beta series
Hang Seng Indexes has launched the Hang Seng Smart Beta Index Series, which is designed to capture exposure to each of the six factors – value, momentum, quality, yield, low volatility and low size – with long-term risk premium.
Using Hang Seng Large-Mid Cap (Investable) Index as the applicable universe, the index series are deployed with a quality-based methodology, which combines a quality screening criterion that includes stocks with top 80% quality scores under the Hang Seng Industry Classification System, and a tilting method that adjusts stock weightings by the factor strengths.
Two versions for each of the six single factor indices are available. The Select Indexes include top 40% of stocks in terms of target factor exposure within each industry, which are for those who wish to take a more aggressive approach to enhancing factor exposure. Meanwhile, the Comprehensive Indexes aims at providing a broader market coverage by covering all eligible stocks. Both indices are calculated and disseminated in real-time at two-second intervals and reviewed on an interim basis.
Singapore fintechs to combine digital and conventional securities in a single platform
AG Delta and Skyhook Capital have launched a partnership to deliver a wealth management and execution platform combining digital and conventional securities for investors and advisors to access ‘high-grade alternative investment products’ within a single platform.
Both firms see growing demand by wealth service providers to offer investment strategies incorporating digital assets and securities, and believe that to stay competitive, private and consumer banks, family offices and asset managers will need to give their clients the widest choice of suitable investment options available across both digital and conventional issuance and exchange networks.
AG Delta provides e-wealth platforms with over US$2 trillion of assets and securities distributed to ultra, high net worth and mass affluent investors in Asia and Europe which incorporate an application architecture that supports advisory and order execution service covering bonds, funds, structured products and digital assets across multiple jurisdictions. The AG Delta platform also uses AI technology that empowers investors and their advisors to identify investment products tailored to the unique risk, return and social responsibility objectives of each portfolio.
Skyhook Capital offers access to multiple networks of primary and secondary markets for digital securities with a connection point on the cloud – the firm’s Digital Assets Wealth Network (DAWN) delivers a universal API to standardise trade lifecycle services for high-quality digital securities issued over blockchain networks.
Deutsche Bank probes digital assets
Singapore fintech Hashstacs (aka Stacs) has partnered with Deutsche Bank Securities Services to explore the interoperability, liquidity, cross-border connectivity and smart contract templates for digital assets as well as ESG digital bonds.
Deutsche Bank is seeking to ‘develop commercial practicality of interoperability of digital assets and non-DLT (distributed ledger technology) systems with DLT systems in the securities market, and to connect and service our clients’ access to liquidity pools and digital products,’ Boon-Hiong Chan, project lead, securities services product management at Deutsche Bank, told SRP.
“We are looking at how (Stacs) can enable ESG bond issuers to utilise technology to unlock access to global capital, in a way that matches to the goals of diverse ESG investors, while allowing them to have visibility over the usage of investment proceeds and impact reporting,” Chuan Ji Lim, strategy director of Stacs, told SRP when speaking of the ESG digital bonds.
The fintech company aims to use smart contracts to manage the usage of bonds proceeds responsibly and tag impact reporting to digital assets, according to Lim. A report detailing the project will be released in April.
Stacs launched recently the Project Nathan with EFG Bank, a project supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as part of its Financial Sector Technology and Innovation scheme.
CoinShares debuts Bitcoin ETP on Six
Digital assets provider CoinShares has listed a physical bitcoin ETP on the Six Swiss Stock Exchange a week after the launch of ETC Group’s Bitcoin ETC - the BTCetc Bitcoin exchange traded crypto (BTCE).
Each unit of the CoinShares physical bitcoin ETP which is available in four trading currencies (USD, CHF, EUR, GBP) is backed up with 0.001 bitcoin at launch.
Christian Reuss (right), head Six Swiss Exchange, markets, said that ‘interest in Bitcoin continues to grow’ with the exchange now providing 22 Bitcoin ETPs and structured products from up to seven different ETP issuers.
Trading turnover in crypto products on Six in 2021 is already showing strong growth with CHF 381m. traded in the first two weeks of 2021 – more than during any whole month since crypto products were first admitted to trading on the exchange in 2016.
The bitcoins held on behalf of CoinShares Physical Bitcoin (BTC) are maintained in custody with Komainu, a regulated institutional-grade digital asset custodian. CoinShares is a pioneer in digital asset investing with $2.9 billion in assets under management - the largest digital asset manager in Europe.