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Nationwide has teamed up with New development and distribution partner AmeriLife to distribute the Nationwide Peak 10 fixed indexed annuity (FIA).

The firm’s Peak 10 is the latest addition to Nationwide's product lineup, and its first annuity in partnership with AmeriLife.

The new indexed annuity offers a fixed account and four indices, including two exclusive new indices from leading financial institutions J.P. Morgan and AllianceBernstein. The J.P. Morgan Cycle Index, exclusively available within Nationwide Peak 10, ‘seeks to outperform the market, allocating to stocks and bonds, with an equity allocation that rotates between different "smart beta" factors based on the business cycle’. 

The AllianceBernstein Growth and Value Balanced Index, also currently available only via the Nationwide Peak 10, seeks to generate ‘consistent returns while maintaining balance to navigate changing markets, with equity and-fixed income sleeves within a single portfolio which is managed to a 5% annualized volatility target using a risk-controlled process’.

Nationwide Peak 10 also offers two options linked to S&P DJI indices - the S&P 500 Price Index and the S&P 500 Daily Risk Control Index.

S&P DJI adds target risk series to ESG range

S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) has launched the S&P ESG Equity Target Risk Index Series, a new index that measures the performance of stock-bond allocations incorporated with ESG values.

It comprises of S&P ESG Equity Target Risk Moderate Index, S&P ESG Equity Target Risk Growth Index, S&P ESG Equity Target Risk Aggressive Index, which measure the performance of moderate stock-bond allocations to fixed income, ESG-themed equity allocations and aggressive allocations to equities, respectively.

The growth and aggressive indices have been licensed to Taiwan Cooperative Securities Investment Trust as the basis of index funds.

A dynamic allocation strategy, which balances risk and return during drawdowns and recoveries, could provide investors some protection
(Tian Yin Cheng)

The universe includes six ESG equity indices covering the US, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and other emerging markets, as well as two fixed income indices including the S&P Green Bond Select Index and S&P U.S. Aggregate Bond Index.

The most recent ESG index adopted with a structured product strategy from S&P DJI is S&P ESG Global Macro Index, which ‘exploits allocation between regional diversified bonds and ESG-themed equities based on economic and market trend signals and aims for a stable risk level by adjusting allocation between the portfolio and cash on a daily basis’, according to Tian Yin Cheng (pictured), senior director, strategy indices at S&P DJI.

“In undesirable macroeconomic conditions such as 2020, a dynamic allocation strategy, which balances risk and return during drawdowns and recoveries, could provide investors some protection,” Cheng told SRP, adding that the S&P ESG Global Macro Index managed to outperform a pure equity as well as static 60% equity and 40% bond portfolio with a risk control mechanism.

Singapore family office eyes structured products in global push

Singapore-based Taurus Wealth eyes structured products in global real estate sector and private side opportunities while it plans to set up a London office in the second half of 2021 after expanding to Zurich and enlarged its client advisors team in Dubai, as part of its global expansion and rebranding campaign.

“Through the partnership, we have added to the network of specialist access partners with a commendable track record in real estate investment across Western Europe, Middle East and Asia,” Sener Arslan, chariman of the board at Taurus Global Wealth and group chief operating officer, told SRP in a statement.

“This allows us to identify and source undervalued Grade-A assets with a deep understanding of local demand, based on investor interest and enables to generate superior returns from realizing value through bespoke structures that we are able to create for these investments for our clients,” Arslan said.

The move also aims to widen the wealth manager’s capabilities in impact investing and digitized fintech based solutions. Its Dubai team is led by Bhavnesh Thakkar who joined from L&T Finance, where he was regional director for international business, while André Tomasini, heads the relationship managers in Zurich, who was most recently head of wealth management for Russia, CIS and Israel at UBS.

Exane enters Swiss structured products market

The Six Swiss Stock Exchange has added Exane Solutions to its pool of issuers of structured products and Exane Derivatives SNC as a new trading participant – Exane is the 21st structured product issuer trading products on SIX and Exane Derivatives SNC joins 96 other players as a new trading participant.

The first product, a delta one certificate tracking an Exane proprietary index - the Exane Apollo Index in euro, was listed on 22 January 2021, adding to the palette offered by Switzerland’s largest exchange for structured products.

There are over 300 live structured products issued by Exane on SRP database mainly sold in Italy and Ireland – the majority are linked to stocks and sold as structured certificates. 

With a trading turnover of CHF22.6 billion and a total of 898,304 trades, SIX exchange reported a record year for the structured products and warrants segment in 2020.

Hang Send Indices promotes A-share exposure

Hang Seng Indexes has launched the Hang Seng China A (Investable) Index, which gauges the performance of investable stocks within a market coverage of 80% on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, in a move to capture China’s A-shares exposure.

The Chinese stocks included in the index have a listing history of at least one month with a cap of 10% applied on individual securities. The index comprises 539 and 528 constituents from the two bourses, respectively, led by sectors in finance (18.9%), industrials (18.6%), consumer staples (13.2%), consumer discretionary (11.4%) and healthcare (11.2%). Reviewed every half year, the index is rebalanced quarterly. It has recorded a return of 6.89% year-to-date, 37.24% for one year, 23.18% for three years.

The introduction came a week after Hang Seng Indexes released the Hang Seng Smart Beta Index Series, as SRP reported, and marks the company’s fifth Mainland-listed market-cap weighted index following the launch of the Hang Seng China A Innovative Enterprises Index, Hang Seng Stock Connect China AH (A) Index, Hang Seng Stock Connect China A 300 Index and Hang Seng Stock Connect China A Greater Bay Area Index.

Global Palladium lists physically backed metal ETC

Global Palladium Fund (GPF), a ‘diversified mining company’, has launched four physically-backed metal exchange traded commodities (ETCs) with total expense ratio (TER) ranging from 0.145% to 0.20%.

GPF will use blockchain technology to record bar information into distributed ledger technology (DLT), as an ‘extra layer of security and proof of ownership to the issuer’ in addition to the traditional recording processes used by the custodian.

The new physically backed gold, silver, platinum and palladium ETCs are targeted at family offices, wealth managers, institutional and other professional investors, and track the spot price of the respective metals they cover.  They were listed by the issuer, Ridgex, on Deutsche Börse on 18 January 2021, with further listings in Europe in the pipelines, according to the firm. 

Marketing, distribution and investor engagement company NTree International is leading the distribution and rollout of the products with a dedicated brand, Metal.Digital as an education resource for professional investors with a focus on metals.

GPF said the ETCs have a ‘strong focus on ESG’ – the metals approved by the global authority for precious metals LBMA will be sourced from producers and suppliers who support the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda and other global initiatives in sustainable development and responsible mining.