An analysis of products featuring down-and-in puts, the SRP Americas 2024 Awards, DLCs in Singapore, and various people moves were among the topics covered by SRP’s news desk last week.

BBVA was voted ‘Best Single Dealer Platform’ at the SRP Americas 2024 Awards for its ePricer digital platform.

The award comes after a period of five years that has seen the bank fully automate the way clients manage their structured products activity, allowing them to price, trade, and monitor assets across equities, foreign exchange, interest rates, and credit, “all within a single web-based platform”, according to Daniel Hernández, head of the global markets e-connectivity solutions team at BBVA.

We work closely with our clients to develop a platform that not only meets their current needs but also anticipates future demands - Daniel Hernández, BBVA

“The platform provides value at all stages of the business, not just pricing […] We work closely with our clients to develop a platform that not only meets their current needs but also anticipates future demands,” Hernández told SRP.

SRP reviewed 8,350 coupon paying products linked to the Eurostoxx 50 or a decrement index featuring a down-and-in put.

Our analysis shows that the fixing of the knock-in barrier for Eurostoxx-linked products steadily changed towards less protective levels in the period under review: from 55.5% in January 2023 to 63.9% in August 2024. On the other hand, the offered coupon levels have shown a slow decline, starting at 5.5% for Eurostoxx-50 linked products in January 2023 and dipping to 4.5% by August 2024.

Structures linked to decrement indices followed a similar pattern with down-and-in put levels trending from 53.7% in January 2024 to 60.2% in August 2024 while coupon levels declined from 7.7% in December 2023 to 5.7% by August 2024.

UBS has set up a corporate fixed income solutions (CFIS) group within its global banking division aimed at enhancing its product offering for corporate clients.

The new unit is tasked with expanding UBS’ fixed income capabilities across interest and currency hedging, flow FX, commodities, cash management, and structured solutions working closely with the structured equities solutions group and global markets.

Eric Glicksman, the former managing director and head of structured solutions Americas at UBS, has joined IVM Markets as president.

Based in New York, Glicksman will lead IVM’s efforts to expand its footprint in the US structured products market. The US fintech, which offers an AI powered idea generation software-as-a-service for structured products, recently raised US$3.4 million from venture capital investors to enter the next stage of development.

Meanwhile, Chinmay Patil has been appointed managing director, head of structured products for Southeast Asia at HSBC Wealth and Personal Banking’s investments and wealth solutions team.

Patil brings over 19 years of industry experience, including eight-years at Leonteq between 2015 and 2023, most recently serving as managing director, investment solutions, head of private banking sales in Asia.

In product news, Zuercher Kantonalbank launched a capital protection note with a 32-year maturity in Switzerland. The product has a lock-in feature and offers access to the Edmond de Rothschild Fund Income Europe IAHC, which aims to provide a return of 4.0% pa by investing in European equity and fixed income securities issued by companies that meet environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.

Over in the US, Security Benefit Life Insurance issued a fixed index annuity tracking two artificial intelligence (AI) powered proprietary indices from Société Générale and Bank of America, respectively.

Licensed on a non-exclusive basis, SG AI Navigator Index (SGIXAIN8) and MSCI BofA U.S. Dualcast Index (MXUSCAST), feature the adoption of AI technology and an 8.0% volatility control mechanism with respective inception dates of 6 June and 28 June.

Staying with retirement products, Equitable expanded its Equi-Vest line of deferred variable annuity products with Equi-Vest Series 202, a new annuity designed to help K-12 educators supplement their pension savings by providing additional choices, flexibility and a level of certainty.

The new offering is the only 403(b) product in the market that offers a variable annuity with an index-linked option, according to Equitable.

According to the 2024 Index Mid-Year Review released by The Index Standard, indices with higher levels of complexity have underperformed, on average, their less complex counterparts, while intraday risk control indices outperformed as a group compared to their traditional risk control counterparts over the past year.

The research also shows that equity-only risk control indices have been the best performers as a group during the first half of the year when compared to equity- bond and multi-asset risk control indices.

In China, investors are repositioning Chinese and Hong Kong stock underlying exposure via structured products, thanks to the equity rally on the back of Beijing’s new monetary stimulus measures, while in the Korean market, sales of autocallable equity-linked securities (ELS) fell by over 16% year-on-year to KRW18.3 trillion (US$13.9 billion) in the first half of the year, according to data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Société Générale listed its first batch of US single stock-linked daily leverage certificates (DLC) available for accredited investors on the Singapore Exchange. The products offer three times the fixed leverage exposure of the daily performance of Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla, providing long or short exposure during local trading hours. It’s the first time US single stock underlying are being deployed among listed structured products in Singapore.

Image: Around Ball/Adobe Stock.

Do you have a confidential story, tip or comment you’d like to share? Contact Us | SRP (structuredretailproducts.com)