In a week that saw Citi, HKEX and Bloomberg announce staff changes, our StructrPro analysis tool looked at worst-performing US underlyings, whilst China and the EU spelt out regulatory changes ahead
In his new role, Figueiredo will drive coordinated coverage of corporate and public sector clients across all markets products. He will work with product heads in the banking, capital markets and advisory division, commercial banking solutions & services and Treasury and Trade Solutions to deliver execution services and solutions.
Structured products specialist provider Hilbert Investment Solutions has appointed Arnaud Schmitz to lead cross-asset sales in France. Schmitz will bolster the Hilbert IS team which offers a range of long-term savings and retirement solutions to clients across the UK and France. Based in Paris, he will report to Hilbert founder Steve Lamarque. Schmitz joins from Makor where he sold structured products to wealth managers and corporates, over the last three years.
Société Générale’s listed products business has benefitted from the 10% turnover increase across European exchanges to grow its market share
Bloomberg has announced the appointment of Dave Gedeon as CEO of Bloomberg Index Services Limited (BISL), replacing the current CEO Steve Berkley, upon his retirement in March 2023. Gedeon currently serves as deputy CEO and head of index product.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) has appointed Bonnie Y Chan as co-chief operating officer (co-COO) and Katherine Ng as head of listing. Together with Wilfred Yiu as co-COOs, Chan will oversee all operational activities of HKEX’s business, reporting to HKEX chief executive officer Nicolas Aguzin. She will directly oversee the chief China economist’s office, corporate communications, group strategy, human resources, mainland development and LME clear.
In the US, underlying performance (index, stock or other asset class) is a key driver of product returns. Structured products are often positioned as a lower risk way of gaining exposure to underlyings. The performance statistics shown here were taken from the US structured product analysis service StructrPro.com, which can be used to analyse live and matured products from the SRP database using analytics powered by FVC. Four of the five worst performing underlyings of 2022 are individual stocks and the other is the ARK Innovation ETF. The stocks are technology companies with the exception of Tesla although particularly since the Twitter takeover it clearly has had similar exposures.
For all five underlyings, their highest level for 2022 was right at the start of the year (3 January 2022). The stock with the worst performance over the period was Snap Inc. It was down 81% from its level at the beginning of the year. The one-year historic volatility of the underlying is currently 122%.
Several European trade associations and the German ministry of finance have cast a shadow on an outright EU-wide ban on inducements as it would undermine the goals of the Commission’s Retail Investment Strategy (RIS). In a letter to Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets, Christian Lindner, Germany's finance minister, welcomed the goal to deepen the EU capital market, but said he is ‘very much concerned’ about a possible ban on inducements as commission-based selling ‘predominates’ in the German insurance market.
In China, the financial regulator has spelt out measures on structured notes around issuance eligibility, sales practices and risk management in a new set of rules that will fully come into effect in 2024. The guidance (《证券公司收益凭证发行 管理办法（征求意见稿》) is open for comments until 8 February after the Securities Association of China (SAC), a regulatory body under the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) sent the circular to local security houses on 13 January, SRP has learnt.
The rules apply to private notes issued by security houses, known as ‘beneficiary certificates’ in China, which are classified into fixed income and floating income by interest payment. The former account for over half of the issuance in the country while the latter namely structured notes have grown rapidly in the past three years.
Société Générale’s listed products business has benefitted from the 10% turnover increase across European exchanges to grow its market share.
At a European level, Société Générale has seen “overall growth” in its listed products business versus 2021 which was “already quite exceptional”, according to Didier Imbert, head of public distribution Europe, Société Générale. The growth in traded volumes and turnover has helped Société Générale to increase its market share across Europe, in countries such as Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland. The partnership with Spectrum in Spain and the Nordic countries announced in December 2022 is part of the bank’s strategy to expand its reach in countries where there is scope for further grow via new distribution channels.
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