The market is gearing up for a new year, and announcements are starting to reflect that.

Jean Park has joined Cboe global markets as a senior director, data and access solutions in New York. He joins from index specialist firm MerQube where he was head of business development since the summer of 2020, and reunited with former colleagues Vinit Srivastava, co-founder and chief executive officer of the index firm, and former global head of strategy and volatility at S&P Dow Jones Indices, and Keith Loggie, co-founder and chief operating officer and previously chair of the S&P 500 Index committee and global head of index research and design at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Previously, Park was head of client coverage, North America at S&P Dow Jones Indices. He parted ways with the index provider in the summer of 2019 after more than 17 years of service.

On the product side, Vontobel has issued an actively managed certificate (AMC) on the Vontobel Inflation Influenced Index in Italy. The open-ended ‘strategic’ tracker replicates 1:1 the performance of the underlying index, which is actively managed by Vontobel. It is denominated in euro and listed on Sedex, the multilateral trading facility of Borsa Italiana. The underlying Vontobel Inflation Influenced Index is part of the company’s strategy family of indices. It was launched on 6 December 2021 and its currency is USD. The index strategy is composed of two main components – a core equity part and a commodity part.

Barclays has rolled out the Avantis Barclays Volatility Control (VC) Index in collaboration with Avantis Investors. The index was created specifically for the RIA market and the fixed index annuity (FIA) structure by the firm’s chief investment officer Eduardo Repetto and chief operating officer Pat Keating. The index uses an excess return option strategy rather than a price return, which offers the benefit of dividends.

Bank of Montreal (BMO) and National Bank of Canada (NBC) have both issued a significant number of structured products tied to dividend underlyings during the final quarter of 2021 (1 August – 31 October), SRP data shows.

BMO issued a total of 124 structured products tied to the dividend underlying sector in Q4 21 with sales amounting to US$305m. The sector was the most popular during the period with common underlyings being the Solactive factor index offering such as Solactive Canada Pipelines AR Index, Solactive Canada Bank 30 AR Index, and Solactive Canada Insurance AR Index.

BMO also rolled out four principal-protected ESG notes in Q4 21 which were all tied to the bank’s proprietary index BMO Fossil Fuel Free ESG Index. The BMO Fossil Fuel Free ESG Index Linked Principal Protected Deposit Notes, Series 10 features an uncapped call payoff and is expected to reach maturity in seven years. It will return 100% of invested capital plus 100% participation in the growth of the underlying if the underlying is above its initial level at the scheduled maturity date. If the underlying is below its initial level, the product will return 100% of invested capital.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) has published its final guidelines on certain aspects of the Mifid 2 appropriateness and execution-only requirements in relation to investment products and investment services that go beyond investment advice, portfolio management and the sale of structured deposits.

These requirements are an important element of investor protection in the provision of investment services other than investment advice or portfolio management.

Under Mifid 2, investment firms providing non-advised services will be required to request information on the knowledge and experience of clients or potential clients to assess whether the investment service or product envisaged is appropriate, and to issue a warning in case the investment service or product is deemed inappropriate.

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