The past week saw the release of two exclusive market reviews prepared by our SRP editorial team.

In South Korea, sales volume of structured products has reached around KRW4.26 trillion (US$3.13 billion) in September, edging down eight percent year-on-year (YoY) but ticking up three percent month-on-month, according to the South Korea Market Review, September 2024.

Yield enhancement products with autocallable payoff structures continued to dominate the Apac ex-China market this year 

Sun Life Philippines has reported progress on its variable universal life insurance linked to structured notes that was re-launched last year. The product has amassed on average US$15m-20m per tranche in sales over the past six quarters.

Meanwhile, Caladan, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency trading firm, has announced the opening of its over-the-counter (OTC) crypto options desk to offer crypto structured products for institutional and accredited investors.

Staying in Singapore, US wealth manager Arta Finance has launched to accredited investors in Singapore and to international investors open to managing their wealth in the state country, following the firm’s debut in the US in October 2023.

For Asia Pacific (Apac), yield enhancement products with autocallable payoff structures continued to dominate the Apac ex-China market this year as one of the most popular product groups favoured by investors, our latest Spotlight on Apac shows.

On people moves, Citigroup has appointed Hooi Wan Ng as head of markets for Malaysia and Anand Goyal as head of FX institutional sales for Asia South, Japan, Asia North & Australia based in Singapore.

In Poland, an estimated PLN1.3 billion (US$336m) was collected from 51 publicly offered structured products that struck on the Polish primary market in Q3 2024. Sales volumes increased by 15% compared to the previous quarter and were level YoY, according to the Poland Market Review, Q3 2024: BNPP in charge as capital protection remains king.

Across the border, an estimated CZK1.4 billion (US$60m) was collected from 59 publicly offered structured products in the Czech Republic in the third quarter of 2024. Sales volumes were almost on par with the previous quarter when CZK1.5 billion was gathered from 88 products; year-on-year (YoY) sales were down 35% (Q3 2023: CZK2.1 billion from 84 products).

Further west, Vontobel remained its position as the number one issuer on SIX Swiss Exchange, a position it has held since January. Turnover of structured products traded on the bourse reached CHF608m (US$709m) in September, down 25% from the previous month but stable YoY.

Last but not least, we reviewed how some of the biggest funds of structured products registered in the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK and Ireland performed in the third quarter of 2024.

Moving to the US, SRP spoke to S&P Dow Jone Indices about S&P 500 Market Agility 10 TCA 0.5% Decrement Index (SPMKTD), which has earned the index provider the Index of the Year accolade at the SRP Americas Awards 2024.  

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) has ordered Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc. to pay over US$14.2 million to Florida investors who suffered losses due to structured note investments recommended by one of the firm’s brokers.

Citigroup Global Markets Funding Luxembourg (CGMFL), the funding vehicle for Citigroup Global Markets Limited (CGML), has issued 11,296 structured notes worth US$13.2 billion under its global medium-term note programme during the first six months of 2024, according to the issuer’s 2024 interim report.

In addition, William Serrano has joined Marex in its financial products sales team for Latin America (Latam) from Deutsche Bank where he was in the advisory team under wealth management for the same region.

Meanwhile, Ian Merrill, a former Barclays senior structurer, has joined MerQube as chief revenue officer, effective from 23 September.

Image: Savelight Studio/Adobe Stock.

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