The SRP China Conference/Awards has resumed industry gathering in Shanghai after five years as we focus our market data analysis across China, Hong Kong, the US and UK.

Last Wednesday (17 April) the curtain came down on the SRP China 2024 conference , which gathered over 100 attendees from the Chinese structured product industry, including securities houses, domestic and foreign banks, wealth managers, asset managers and service providers.

The one-day event kicked off with a market overview presentation by SRP followed by six panel discussions focusing on the latest trends and opportunities in the onshore market where the equity segment has stumbled over the past year.

In the evening, winners of the SRP China Awards 2024 were announced and recognised for their contributions at the Ritz Carlton Shanghai Pudong, the first physical ceremony by SRP China since the onset of the pandemic.

Back in the newsroom, we reported on the XAU/USD asserting its dominance as the underlying pair of choice in the Chinese structured deposit market after a two-month rally following the US Federal Reserve’s rate-cut hopes and geopolitical turmoil, according to SRP data.

In Singapore, SBI Digital Markets has built a distribution channel of actively managed certificates (AMCs) linked to an AI-related index via a partnership with Swiss structured products specialist provider CAT Financial Products - tokenised structured products are on the roadmap for upcoming developments.

Looking at the US market, SRP reported on two convertible notes booked by J.P. Morgan which boosted the volumes of the SEC-registered structured note market up to a monthly record, SRP data shows.

In March, 3,604 structured notes registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were marketed with a total traded notional of US$12 billion, up 41.2% year-on-year (YoY) or 28.3% month-on-month (MoM).

On the exchange-traded fund (ETF) side, Invesco has filed its first actively managed option-based ETFs in the US - the Invesco QQQ Income Advantage ETF and Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Income Advantage ETF aim at generating income through equity-linked notes (ELNs).

In Latin America, Mexico’s Monex has rolled out new structured notes linked to the Constant Maturity Swap (CMS) and interest rates - the CMS 26X1 TIIE28 Coupon Range. The issuer's activity in 2023 was again dominated by FX trades but interest rates saw a revival and gained more visibility after a quiet period.

Brazil has welcomed a Flex option platform brought by Luma Financial Technologies as the US fintech company makes headway towards the stage three of its business plan in Latin America. The platform where Morgan Stanley is onboard as the first market maker aims to facilitate distribution for advisors and streamline operations for broker-dealers for the Flex option market worth BRL250 billion (US$48 billion).

Moving to the UK, autocallable plans linked to the FTSE 100 kept their stronghold in the market last month, according to the UK Market Review, March 2024. An estimated £134m (US$168m) was invested across 72 publicly offered structured products that struck in the UK during March 2024 – on par with the £136m gathered in February (from 68 products), but down 18% YoY.

In Switzerland, an estimated CHF24.7 billion (US$27.1 billion) was invested in approximately 67,000 structured products that struck in Q1 2024 – up 120% by sales volume compared to the prior year period, according to SRP data (Q1 2023: CHF11.1 billion from 47,100 products).

SRP also reviewed how three of the biggest funds of structured products from continental Europe performed in March and Q1 2024.

Our coverage of the SRP Europe Awards 2024 included an overview of MSCI's achievements as the Best Smart Beta Index Provider in Europe, showcasing several smart beta thematic strategies that reflect investors’ shift from single themes towards dynamic selection.

Solactive was also featured as the Best Index Provider of the European structured products market. In full-year 2023, Solactive saw up to 82 of its indices deployed across 221 structured products sold across European market worth an estimated US$1.4 billion. “A key part of our offering is based on innovation and providing access to niche segments,” said Timo Pfeiffer, chief markets officer at the German index provider.

Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) pocketed the Best Educational Initiative award for its series of live webinars for advisors, which are broadcasted monthly, among other initiatives including training sessions and workshops for distribution partners in Austria and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), as well as mandatory training on certificates for Raiffeisen bankers in Austria.

On the data analytics side, our wide angle series examined European investors’ appetite for single stocks, consumer discretionary and technology as the turnover of structured products linked to a single stock increased by 41% YoY in the continent in 2023.

Despite losing some of its market share to rates-linked products, equities, as an asset class, continued to grow across Europe in terms of sales driven by the market rally in 2023 – this trend has extended into the first quarter of 2024.

Image: Adobe Stock.