Asia Pacific appointments continue unabated. Elsewhere, South Africa’s Absa targets wealth clients with a Shariah-compliant structured certificate.

MSCI has appointed Ryoya Terasawa as head of Japanese client coverage, based in Tokyo. Effective immediately, he reports to Kazuya Nagasawa, head of Asia Pacific client coverage, and is tasked to drive revenue growth across new business and renewal targets in the Japanese market.

Structuring will continue to be organised vertically by global product pillars and horizontally by streams and regions - UBS

Canadian start-up fintech Volatility Labs, a crypto structured product provider known as Fig Investments, has onboarded David Schaffner as a strategic advisor as it ‘embarks on its next phase of growth in democratizing the structured products market’, the firm announced on 2 November. Most recently, Schaffner was the president and CEO of CWB Wealth Management from 2016 to 2020, when he transitioned into semi-retirement as a strategic wealth consultant. 

Swiss bank UBS has announced a raft of appointments and a new set up for its structuring organisation which will organise operations vertically by global product, and horizontally by streams and regions, according to a memo seen by SRP and signed by the bank’s global head of derivatives and solutions structuring, Spyros Mesomeris. The note reads that ‘structuring will continue to be organised vertically by global product pillars and horizontally by streams and regions, working in a fully interlinked manner to ensure seamless delivery of products and solutions to our clients’.

Four of the bankers assuming senior management roles come from Credit Suisse and will join eight other appointments set to lead vertical global product pillars and horizontal streams. Julien Bieren, former global head of EQD exotic structuring in London at CS, will head equity structured solutions globally with Ramzi Issa leading structured credit & sustainable credit products, also globally.

In a first for the South African market, Absa is targeting wealth clients with a Shariah-compliant structured certificate linked to a BNP Paribas index. With a strike date set on 30 November, the five-year structured product offers 100% capital protection and tracks the performance of the BNP Paribas Europe Islamic Select 50 PR Index.

Denominated in Rand, the certificate features indicated 350% upside participation of the index performance, which is capped at 30% based on its averaged monthly level over the final six months. This translates to a max return of 105%, or 15.4% pa. Unlike conventional structured products, BNP Paribas has entered into an Islamic hedge (Wa’ad) with the guarantor, which may include one or a combination of Murabaha deposits or Wa’ad & commodity Murabahas.

HSBC’s wealth balances have increased by 12% YoY in the third quarter. Around half of net new invested assets for the first nine months of the year came from the three months ended September.

It has posted robust earnings for the third quarter of 2023, with total revenue jumping 40% year-on-year (YoY) to US$16.16 billion compared with US$11.5 billion in the last year’s same period, according to the bank’s latest earnings report. The UK bank’s profit before tax soared 140% YoY to US$7.7 billion in the three months ended September – reflecting a ‘continued benefit from higher interest rate,’ a US$2.1 billion reversal of an impairment relating to the planned sale of its retail banking operations in France, and a provisional gain of US$1.6 billion on the acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank UK.

'There was good broad-based growth across all businesses and geographies, supported by the interest rate environment,’ Noel Quinn (pictured), CEO of HSBC Holdings, said in the statement.

On the annuities side of things, New York-headquartered Axonic Insurance Solutions is making a concerted push into the Asian market where they have identified significant potential in private wealth and increasing demand for structured annuities, according to Robert Painter, head of product and actuarial at the subsidiary of Axonic Capital.

The products offered by Axonic Insurance Solutions have a particular focus on multi-year guaranteed annuities - the guaranteed fixed rate plan with three, five and seven-year tenors, and the guaranteed investment plan. The latter is essentially an indexed-linked annuity that offer both downside protection and minimum returns along with upside participation linked to headline indices, such as the S&P500.

They are typically distributed by insurance platforms, private banks and independent wealth managers, while the return and principal guarantees come from highly rated insurers, said Painter.

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