A news snapshot of the week features US product trends, European market overviews in the first quarter, an abstraction of APAC wrappers' latest developments, and more.
Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions (GSAS) unveiled a lending feature that is designed to enable eligible clients of registered investment advisors (RIAs) to borrow against specific types of alternative investment positions currently available through Goldman Sachs Bank USA in their portfolio.
Over the next two years, RIAs plan to expand their alternative investments allocation by 31.1%, reflecting the largest allocation increase to any investment vehicle
The custodian can “provide lendable value against certain GS-issued structured notes as determined during the underwriting process”, a spokesperson at the US banking group told SRP.
Over the next two years, RIAs plan to expand their alternative investments allocation by 31.1%, reflecting the largest allocation increase to any investment vehicle, according to GSAS.
As Google’s parent company Alphabet recently unveiled an array of AI products and services during its I/O developer conference, we analysed the performance of US structured products linked to the US tech giant stock: As of 31 March, out of 917 structured notes linked to the Alphabet stock (either on its own or as part of a basket) featured in the sample portfolio, UBS and Goldman Sachs are the most active issuers on the back of 167 and 143 issuance, respectively.
By investment goal, 169 of the live are income products featuring autocallable payoffs while the remaining are growth structures that typically come with autocall or leveraged returns.
In Europe, several markets finished the first quarter of the year quite strong: the German market set a new record for both structured products issuance and sales in the first quarter, with Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) taking over DekaBank in league table's leading spot as capital protected products surged amidst changes in top performing underlyings. In Switzerland, volumes increased by more than 80% compared to the prior-year month.
Amundi reported a net income of €318m in the quarter ended 31 March, up 5.9% year-on-year (YoY). The French asset management giant saw assets under management (AuM) for structured products reach €41 billion at the end of March, up 22% YoY.
On the regulation front, the European Securities and Markets Authority launched an industry-wide review of the Ucits Eligible Assets Directive. The European financial watchdog issued a call for evidence on 6 May seeking feedback into the eligibility of assets including structured and leveraged loans, AT1 bonds, commodities, crypto assets and emission allowances.
New regulatory development was also seen in the Asia Pacific region last week. South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service determined a compensation ratio in the representative cases of investment loss from equity-linked securities (ELS) tracking the Hang Seng China Enterprise Index (HSCEI) sold by five major banks, ranging between 30% and 65%.
The financial watchdog said that the subcommittee selected one representative mis-selling dispute case from each commercial bank that sold the products, including Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Nonghyup and SC First Bank. Among, the representative case at Nonghyup Bank was determined to compensate the highest amount, 65% of the damage.
As SRP is finalising the Asia Pacific chapter of the SRP Wrapper Guide, we showcased the abstracted snapshots, where we spoke with UBS Investment Bank's Michael Chu on equity-linked investments (ELI) development in Hong Kong, Société Générale’s Tomoyuki Sasai on the challenges of Japan’s structured Uridashi faces, Samsung Securities’ Gyun Jun on how the ELS wrapper evolves in the Korean market, and more.
Meanwhile, we also recapped the spotlight moments at the Asia Pacific conference held earlier this month. Panellists on stage shared investors’ shifting appetite for structured products given the current macro environment and technology development, as well as the latest trends and innovations in indexing, including the need for simplicity in the face of increasing complexity.
Image: Andreas Föll/Adobe Stock.
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