The past week saw developments in the UK market while Korean regulator finally releases its probe results after three months.

Société Générale and UBS were busy on the people moves front last week with several appointments across structured products sales.

The UK market has welcomed new distributor Hop Investing, which is offering its maiden suite comprised of four autocallable products from preferred issuer partner, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)

Peter Degombert has relocated to London from Paris taking the role as head of cross-asset solutions sales, UK. He reports to Haris Contaroudas, head of cross-asset solutions and equity flow derivatives sales, UK, and head of Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) sales at the French bank. Most recently, Degombert was director, cross-asset solutions sales, CEE after his return from the New York office.

In addition, Guillaume Chatain has joined from Coinbase as head of sales at Société Générale-Forge (SG-Forge), the digital assets arm of the French bank. Based in London, he reports to chief executive Jean Marc Stenger.

Meanwhile, the UK market has welcomed new distributor Hop Investing, which is offering its maiden suite comprised of four autocallable products from preferred issuer partner, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). 

UBS has also made two appointments within its global markets segment, including Eric Lafon, global head of structured product, structured finance & solution sales and Cecile Retaureau, global head of financing & solutions sales, who reports to Lafon. 

In China, Standard Chartered Bank has stopped taking new subscriptions into offshore-domiciled funds sold via the country’s qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) scheme since 22 February, citing ‘commercial reasons’ without elaboration.

The British bank has a quota of US$2.8 billion approved by the Chinese government in June 2021, making up 10.4% of the total for banks.

Also in Asia, another British player, Barclays, has launched structured notes linked to the Shiller Barclays CAPE US Sector strategy targeting private banking clients and professional investors in Hong Kong SAR and Singapore.

The continued rally of Nikkei 225 is reflected in its neighbouring Korean market where the issuance amount linked to the Japanese equity index has surpassed that to the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) in the past 12 months.

The South Korean structured product market continues to be in turmoil with ongoing regulatory probes on mis-selling practices of equity-linked securities (ELS) linked to the HSCEI. On the other hand, UK adviser Lowes Financial Management (LFM) pointed at the performance track record and protection as two of the main reasons for advisers to embrace and adopt structured products.

A report released by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), owned by member central banks, suggested that the direction of the VIX index throughout 2023 was not a result of the increasing use of zero-days-to-expiry (0DTEs) but a function of the increasing number of yield-enhancement products in the market.

The past week also saw major Canadian banks release its quarterly earnings results ended 31 January, including Royal Bank of Canada, BMO Financial Group and National Bank of Canada.

Image: George Dolgikh/Adobe Stock.

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