It’s been another eventful week in the word of structured product senior staff moves, with several global banks announcing key hires in Asia Pacific.

SRP reported exclusively that HSBC had promoted within its ranks as Hong Kong SAR becomes its structured products hub. Thibaut de Rocquigny has been promoted to global head of equity structuring, markets & securities services at the bank. He will report to Franck Lacour, global head of equities, and locally to Selene Chong, deputy global head of equities and head of equities, Apac, according to an HSBC spokesperson. De Rocquigny replaces Marc Lemmel who left the bank early this year after more than 10 years of service at the bank.

The proposed changes to performance scenarios and decoupling with EU regulations will clearly be an area of much debate - Zak de Mariveles, UK SPA

The revolving doors remain in motion at Société Générale, as it continues to implement its new global banking and investor solutions strategic roadmap. Bruno Neukirch, a 20-year veteran with the group, has parted ways with the French bank. He was the Apac head of fund and ESG solutions for the bank’s global markets division. His SFC licence of dealing in securities (type 1) on 25 June became ineffective at SG Securities (HK) after over 10 years.

BBVA has appointed Eric Michl as head of global equities in Asia as the Spanish bank builds an equity trading and sales hub in Hong Kong. The hub will be a local extension of the global product capabilities of the bank in the manufacturing of structured investment products for private banks and asset managers in Hong Kong and Singapore. Based in Hong Kong, Michl (pictured) reports to Roberto Vila, global head of BBVA equity and to Pablo Riquelme, head of BBVA CIB in Asia. He joins BBVA from Natixis where he was head of asia pacific equity trading.

Turning our attention to the world of (mathematical) figures, Morgan Stanley has increased its issuance of structured product in the US domestic market by 50% in the second quarter of 2021 with US$2.7 billion in sales across 648 products, compared with US$1.8 billion/670 products in the same period a year prior.

Leonteq reported three percent growth in total turnover to CHF 15.9 billion driven by 26% grown in turnover from own products. It has reported a three growth in total turnover to CHF15.9 billion (US$17.3 billion) driven by 26% increase in turnover from own products in the first half of 2021.

The group posted a net profit of CHF74.4m for the first half of 2021 (H1 2020: CHF5.5m).

The aggregate turnover in structured products generated by its smart hedging issuance platform (Ship), back-to-back hedging transactions, and products issued by third parties, increased by 67% to CHF1.5 billion in H1 2021, corresponding to approximately nine percent of total turnover (H1 2020: CHF900m or six percent).

Public offerings continue to dominate issuance and sales in South Korea while private placements continue fall. The sales volume of equity-linked securities (ELS) in South Korea in the first half of 2021 has rebounded towards the pre-Covid 19 levels while equity-linked bonds (ELB) fall back after reaching a record high six months ago.

A group of 20 local securities houses together issued 7,981 ELS worth KRW28.9 trillion (US$21.3 billion) in H1 21, up 51.6% compared to H2 20 or 23.7% higher year-on-year (YoY), and KRW13.2 trillion shy of the ELS peak in H1 19, according to data from the Korea Securities Depository. Meanwhile, 771 ELBs were sold at KRW6.7 trillion during the same period, down 63.5% compared with 2H 20 or 18.3% lower YoY.

On the regulatory side of things, the Priips saga continues. The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set out proposals to change disclosure documents provided to retail investors under the Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (Priips) regulation.

Zak de Mariveles, chairman of the UK Structured Products Association, welcomes the regulator's move.

"[We] are pleased to see the consultation launch to allow members to express their thoughts more fully on the proposed changes. There is much within this paper of note, and the proposed changes to performance scenarios and decoupling with EU regulations will clearly be an area of much debate," he told SRP.

According to the FCA, the potential risk for investors and the lack of clarity within the Priips regime over the corporate bond market led HM Treasury to confirm that the UK will diverge from EU Priips regulation ‘to better protect its consumers,’ as reported by SRP.

Image credit: istock.