Goldman beat Morgan Stanley to number one in what was the best ever year for the US structured products market.
Last year was a record year for the US market. Some 31,614 structured products worth US$101.1 billion were issued between 1 January and 31 December – the highest number, both by issuance and sales, since the launch of the SRP US database in 2005.
2021 proved to be a year of fine margins. Goldman Sachs was the number one issuer with sales of US$12.87 billion from 3,559 products – the equivalent of a 12.73% share of the market, finishing just ahead of Morgan Stanley, which collected US$12.82 billion from 3,088 products (12.71% market share). Barclays completed the top three, accumulating sales of US$12.72 billion from 2,549 products (12.59% market share).
The most prolific provider by issuance was UBS with 6,883 products (US$8.55 billion) issued during the year.
The Swiss bank was also responsible for the best performing product of 2021, which came in the shape of Return Optimization Securities on the share of MetLife. The unlisted registered note, which sold US$200,000 at inception, returned the initial capital plus the maximum possible gain of 66.98% after one year.
Barclays was the manufacturer behind the best-selling product of the year. The bank’s Accellerated Return Notes on the S&P 500 achieved sales of US$137.5m in August. The product has a maturity of 14 months and offers 300% participation in the upside performance of the US benchmark. The return is capped at 10.72% and investors are subject to 1:1 downside exposure to decreases in the index. Bank of America acts as the distributor.
Check out the below pie-chart to view the top 10 issuer groups in the US market.
