Switzerland is once again is at the forefront of innovation, while some exclusive news out of Asia was revealed.

Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) issued over CNY1 billion (US$153.9m) notional of equity-linked deposits in China in the first half of 2021 on its electronic trading platform, which went live in December 2020. The platform is equipped with real-time pricing through an open architecture set up which SCB China developed over a 10-month period with an approximate cost of US$3m.

Primary for on-shelf products, the platform supports customisation enabling users to select from four payoff types - daily range accrual, snowball, average autocall and worst-of autocall - and a range of underlyings comprising over 1,000 stocks and 700 ETFs (including index ETFs) from Asian, US and European markets.

UBS has promoted a senior equity distribution banker to fill the boots of its Apac structured sales lead. Daniel Murphy has been appointed as head of Apac structured sales at UBS based in Hong Kong SAR in addition to his role as head of Apac equity distribution.

Murphy will replace Bilal Al-Ali who left for Morgan Stanley in April to lead the US bank’s Apac cross-asset structured sales team. In his new role, he reports to Eric Lafon, co-head of global markets solutions distribution at UBS based in Singapore.

Staying with the Swiss theme, Allindex, a Swiss fintech that provides technology and services to the indexing industry, has built a mobile application were investors can use their phone to invest in customised indices. The launch of the app is scheduled for September and comes two years after the company introduced Workspace, the first white label index creation platform that allows index users to design, test and launch custom indices.

“It gives people very simple straightforward access to investing. If you use the buy button, you wrap it into an AMC and off you go,” said CEO Christian Kronseder.

Feefty, a digital platform for structured products, is marketing Aliquis ESG Airbag 2021 in France. The 10-year MTN is subject to quarterly early redemption (after the first year of investment) if the iEdge ESG Transatlantic EW 50 Decrement 50 Points GTR Index closes at or above its initial level on the valuation date. In that case, it offers 100% capital return, plus a coupon of 1.75% for each quarter elapsed. If the product continues until maturity, and the index has not fallen by more than 50%, the investor receives 100% capital return. The product is issued via Natixis Structured Issuance and listed in Luxembourg.

A partnership between Deutsche Boerse and Crypto Finance is signalling a shift towards a regulated environment as investors call for transparency and confidentiality. Deutsche Boerse has acquired a 66% equity stake in Crypto Finance, a Swiss regulated firm that offers trading, storage, and investment in digital assets to institutional and professional clients. Through the acquisition, the German exchange is seeking to expand its digital assets offering by providing a direct entry point for investments including structured products as well as post-trade services such as custody.

Leonteq has launched the first ever publicly offered reverse convertible on Ether, offering a guaranteed coupon of 10% (20% pa) and a strike level of 55% of the initial fixing level. The launch comes at a time when cryptocurrencies, in particular Ether and Bitcoin, have been trading in a relative tight range for weeks.

This has translated into an increase in requests from clients for delta one exposure but also for option writing strategies such as reverse convertibles or autocalls on the main cryptocurrencies, according to Manuel Duerr (right), head of public solutions at Leonteq.

Over in the US, Well Fargo has stopped new issuance of structured products in the US market with SRP data recording no activity throughout 2021 after two years of diminishing issuance and sales. The bank issued 151 products in 2020 worth US$686m compared to 323 structures in 2019 worth US$ US$1.5 billion.

The US bank however remains an active distributor of structured products in the retail market and has boosted its distribution of US structured products tied to index-baskets in the second quarter of 2021 with an increase in sales to US$157m compared with US$46m in the same period a year prior.

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