Data remains at the centre of the structured product market, and Maybank grows its presence in Thailand.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced the formation of a group to develop a code of conduct for environmental, social and governance (ESG) data and ratings providers. The working group is co-chaired by M&G, Moody’s, London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and Slaughter and May, and is composed of stakeholders including investors, ESG data and ratings providers, and rated entities. The group will aim to meet for the first time later this year. 

The FCA, the Bank of England and other relevant financial regulators and government departments will sit as active observers to this group.

Staying on the data side of things, Société Générale has launched SG Markets Analytics and Data, a new service offered by the Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) division offering ‘qualitative information and intuitive tools’ for professional investors to ‘develop algorithms and make relevant decisions’. SG Markets Analytics and Data will provide the bank’s users and subscribers with premium access to SG CIB’s database which is used on a daily basis by the bank’s CIB teams - the analysis tools and database have been built and used by the bank’s trading and financial research technical experts, leaders on derivative and structured products, for more than 15 years.

Maybank has issued almost 30 structured notes with total notional of THB200.6m (US$5.8m) in Thailand since it entered the domestic market three months ago. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand has reported that Maybank Securities (Thailand) appears as the issuer and distributor of 27 structured products issued between 23 August and 22 November.

The equity-linked notes feature knock-in and knock-out payoff profiles, and offer exposure to single and baskets of Thai stocks including Siam Commercial Bank, Bangkok Dusit Medical Services, Bumrungrad Hospital, Jay Mart, PTT Exploration & Production, Plan B Media, Bangkok Bank, Central Retail, Gulf Energy Development, SCG Packaging, KCE Electronics, and Bangkok Expressway & Metro.

The fully-owned subsidiary of Maybank Group, which owns the largest Malaysian bank by assets, debuted its first structured note in Thailand on 23 August, tracking the performance of the Siam Commercial Bank share, SRP data shows. The product generated a sales volume of THB6m during a one-day subscription and will mature on 19 May 2023.   

UBS issued 784 structured products worth US$1.3 billion in the US market in the third quarter of 2022. Sales were down 41.4% from the same period in 2021 when volumes stood at US$2.2 billion across 1,643 structured products, SRP data shows. The amount represented a 23.8% decrease quarter-on-quarter. The Swiss bank slid to the fifth place in terms of sales volume during Q3 22, after J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The scale down comes after the UBS agreed to pay US$25m to settle investor fraud charges related to its UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy (YES) in June.

UBS was the most active manufacturer by issuance throughout 2021 and lost its crown to J.P. Morgan in Q1 22, which marketed 1,610 structured products compared to 1,522 from UBS. The issuance from UBS decreased to 915 in Q2 22, bringing US$1.7 billion sales volume.

An interesting take from BBVA Investment Solutions: the bank is still in build-up mode and developing its offshore and onshore footprint in the Americas with a special focus in the US market, Mexico, Peru and Colombia where it wants to leverage its internal commercial networks.

In Europe, the bank will continue to cover the UK and Switzerland from its London desk, with the Paris team servicing France and Benelux, the Dusseldorf desk servicing Germany/Austria and Eastern Europe, and Madrid covering Iberia.

“We are now entering a new phase where the depth of our offering and our brand allow us to have a different conversation with bigger clients. It is very rewarding to see how big global tier one private banks have onboarded on the ePricer platform,” said Daniel Hernandez, head of e-connectivity sales at BBVA.