As the Belgian regulator released its annual report pointing at four ‘complex’ structures, the market continues to move ahead with new players entering and existing ones upping their game.

The week started with a reminder about suitability from the Belgian regulator which deemed four structured products linked to proprietary indices sold to retail investors in 2021 ‘too complex’.

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) analysed 20 structured products with new features in 2021. Of these, four products were seen as ‘particularly complex’ by the regulator as they did not meet the criteria of the moratorium, and were not sold in the retail market, according to the FSMA’s annual report.

A year earlier, in 2020, the watchdog had examined 38 structured products of which 12 were banned. The moratorium, which is endorsed by almost all providers of structured products in Belgium, sets several criteria – including the accessibility of the underlying – to avoid the commercialisation of overly complex structured products. In addition, it aims to provide investors with a better understanding of the costs, credit risk and market value of structured products.

In Spain, King & Shaxson Capital Markets, the Spanish subsidiary of UK specialist investment firm King & Shaxson, launched Dowgate, a new multilateral trading facility (MTF) specialised in the trading of public debt and derivatives instruments.

The new investment firm is part of the King & Shaxson group, which also operates the Dowgate MTF, a multilateral trading facility in London, and is the latest to join a pool of MTF platforms in Spain including MAB, MARF, Senaf and Latibex.

The new firm will be led by equity derivatives veteran Pablo Yravedra who has more than 25 years of market experience and has held a number of senior roles including as head of financial markets sales and head of equity derivatives sales at ING, as well as senior credits & ETF sales at Tullett Prebon.

In the UK, fintech Socius Technologies is stepping up its game across the UK structured products market as the shifts towards automation gains traction after the demise of Investec.

The firm partnered earlier this year with Goldman Sachs and Mariana Capital to fill the gap left by Investec in the UK structured products market. The arrangement saw Mariana licensing the Socius Technologies’ Structured Product administration platform to ensure rollover opportunities issued by Goldman were available for investors in maturing products issued by Investec.

Socius Technologies is leveraging the partnership to increase its profile in the market as it enters its next stage of development. 

In Asia-Pacific, HSBC PB added new features to its mobile trading platform as part of its digital transformation in Asia.

HSBC Global Private Banking clients can now customise fixed coupon notes (FCNs) by selecting various parameters beyond underlyings. With real-time pricing available, investors can choose the note parameters comprising currency, principal amount, tenor, knock-out and knock-in levels on the mobile platform, which was fully developed in-house.

The launch follows the additions of FCNs to the mobile trading platform for structured products in Asia in May, although clients were only able to select FCNs on-shelf via mobile where the reference assets span eight markets - Japan, Australia, Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, Germany, France, UK and US.

Talking of trading, in Europe, Spectrum Markets said it is targeting a new generation of investors who know they will ‘not be able to rely on a state pension’ while plans new launches including constant leverage products.

The pan-European trading venue for securitised derivatives, reported record growth in its full year 2021 business with trading volume for the year growing by 96% - more than 840 million securitised derivatives traded in 2021 compared to 432 million the year before.

In an interview, the firm’s CEO, Nicky Maan, told SRP that Spectrum wants to expand on the distribution side and onboard more new players over the next six to 12 months.

On the innovation side, Citi, Morningstar and Equileap joined forces to launch of a new gender diversity index.

Citi has licensed the Morningstar Eurozone Gender Diversity Select 50 Index to issue structured products. 

Launched on 27 June, the index helps investors pursue objectives that align with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards in reference to gender diversity.