As the US markets sees a record-breaking month, according to SRP data, Bank of America and Nomura boost their EU and US team makeups.

Bank of America made three new senior hires as part of plans to further bolster its equities division in Europe. In an internal message signed by Martina Slowey, head of EMEA equities and Orly Avidan, head of global equities distribution, the bank said the three senior bankers will join the firm in the coming months to strengthen the EMEA equities distribution team ‘following increased activity and strong momentum over the past year’.

Some US$13.7 billion was collected from 3,622 newly issued structured products in August 2023 – the highest monthly sales volume recorded in the US market since the launch of the SRP US database in April 2006

Matt Watson has been appointed global head of structured issuance for equities. Watson joins following 26 years at Citi where he most recently was global head of issuance solutions for equities. Vincent Charvin has been appointed EMEA head of delta one sales, and Maxime Menard is now head of EMEA X-asset third party distribution sales.

Nomura Securities International has hired three senior executives as part of its expanding coverage of insurance clients. David Steckl, Sandeep Bidani and Chakradhar Singh will focus on delivering bespoke solutions for annuity hedging, capital markets and financing for insurers across asset classes and regions. All three will sit in New York with Steckl and Bidani reporting to Darren Shames, head of global markets Americas sales, and Singh reporting to Bidani.

Société Générale (SG) is expanding its daily constant leverage products and vanilla warrant products offering listed on Spectrum Markets available to Italy, according to a statement from the pan-European trading venue for securitised derivatives. The multilateral trading facility (MTF) stated that its scalable architecture allows the French bank to extend the scope of its geographic coverage within the trading venue without going through the process of listing new instruments. The addition of these products extends ‘the range of investment solutions available to Italian retail investors via Spectrum, allowing them to benefit from a deeper pool of European liquidity,’ according to the statement from the trading venue led by CEO Nicky Maan.

Some US$13.7 billion was collected from 3,622 newly issued structured products in August 2023 – the highest monthly sales volume recorded in the US market since the launch of the SRP US database in April 2006.

Sales volumes increased by 34% compared to August last year and by 35% month-on-month (Jul 2023: US$10.1 billion). The previous high was seen in September 2022, when US$12.4 billion was gathered from 3,268 products.

The top issuers in August included J.P. Morgan, Barclays Bank and Citigroup with a market share of 19.5%, 12.8%, and 12%, respectively. Goldman Sachs captured 11.8% of the US market while Bank of America completed the top five (6.6%).

DBS Group has posted robust earnings for the first half of 2023, with net profit soaring 45% year-on-year (YoY) to SG$5.26 billion (US$3.86 billion). Total income jumped up 34% YoY to SG$10 billion compared with the prior-year period, according to its latest earnings reports.

The bank’s higher commercial book net interest margin (NIM), card fees, and treasury customer income buoyed its lower treasury markets trading income, which tumbled 36% YoY to SG$446m during the first six months of the year.

The sharp drop in trading income from treasury markets – primarily comprising structuring, market-making, and trading across a range of treasury products – came after a ‘high year-ago base in the first quarter and the impact of higher funding costs,’ stated the bank.

In the structured products space, DBS Bank marketed 4,790 products across the Asia Pacific (Apac) region year-to-date, doubling from last year's period that recorded 2,170 products and placing it the third-largest issuer in the area, according to SRP data.

Image: Vecteezy.