Tech headlines dominated the news this week, as some of the major US platforms consolidated their capabilities.

Luma Financial Technologies has added R.J. O’Brien (Mena) Capital Limited to its multi-issuer structured products and annuities platform. RJO Mena is an affiliate of R.J. O’Brien & Associates, the oldest independent futures brokerage and clearing firm in the US.

By connecting to the Luma platform, RJO Mena will be able to create, order and manage bespoke structured product strategies, with a high degree of efficiency for its clients across its international network. The agreement will initially cover UAE but will then be extended across RJO Mena’s offices in London and Paris to cover the rest of Emea.

SRP reviewed more than 4,000 products that were due to mature or potentially expire early in France during 2021

Also in tech news, iCapital chief executive officer Lawrence Calcano believes the recent acquisition of US multi-issuer structured products platform Simon Markets will help advisors think holistically about the alternatives for their portfolios, and specifically how structured investments fit into the existing portfolio.

Simon Markets lead Jason Broder told SRP that “technology certainly has had a positive impact and played a big role in the growth of the industry over the last four or five years”.

“They have been a catalyst to bring industry participants together and recognise that there needs to be more education, analytics, consistency, standardisation, and end to end workflow around these products,” he noted.

Leonteq has expanded its product offering with the launch of Shari’a compliant trust certificates. The launch follows the opening of its office in Dubai in 2021 and is part of Leonteq’s long-term growth strategy and ambition to service the broader Gulf Cooperation Council market.

In other Leonteq news, the Swiss bank has created a department called retail flow business under the markets division, following its project to develop an automated retail flow platform earlier this year. It has appointed Michael Seifried and Lars Hermann as head and deputy head of the department, respectively, based in Frankfurt, according to an internal memo released on 15 July and viewed by SRP. Effective from July, other hires include business analysts Jens Frohberg, Christian Richter and Felix Echtermeyer. Sebastian Schmidt and Maurice Kirst, who spearheaded the initial efforts in late 2021, will also be a part of the team.

SRP reviewed more than 4,000 products that were due to mature or potentially expire early in France during 2021.

A recent study conducted by Structured Retail Products (SRP) that focused on the French market found that 99% of all products that matured – or were redeemed early – generated positive returns for investors in 2021.

SRP analysed more than 4,000 products, out of which 2,548 matured or expired early in 2021. These delivered an average annualised return of 7.65% over an average term of 1.8-years, while 85% of products paid out a return of above five percent. Autocalls made up 94% of all maturing products in the period. They ran for an average term of 1.6- years and produced an average annualised return of 7.87%.

Staying in Europe, this autumn marks round two of the European Commission’s deliberations over the advice model best suited to retail investor markets. It is considering a comprehensive, EU-wide ban on inducements as part of its Retail Investments Review (RIS), due to be announced in Q4 this year. Providers who witnessed collapsing structured products volume, shrinking offerings and disappearing advice following bans in the UK (2013) and the Netherlands (2014) fear repetition on a continental scale. That would of course be a disaster for industry and consumer alike. But how likely is the worst-case scenario?

According to a source close to the French structured products association, the Association Française des Produits d’Investissement de Détail et de Bourse, policy options remain open and range “from a full ban to simply ensuring the mechanisms around inducements are better understood by investors”.

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