Halo Investing Europe has become a new partner member of the Swiss Structured Products Association (SSPA) replacing Swiss broker Picard Angst, which brought the platform to Europe as a partner.
Designed as a one-stop shop multi-issuer hub, the platform offers standard modules for trade ideas, a subscription desk, a custom note builder, as well as an order and lifecycle management. In October 2021, the US platform secured US$100m in series C funding from major investors which will be used to drive the company’s global expansion as well as new product developments.
The aim of Halo is to radically simplify the handling of structured products in Switzerland - René Raabe
The firm appointed René Raabe (pictured) in December as head of enterprise sales to drive the firm’s expansion in Europe.
‘The aim of Halo is to radically simplify the handling of structured products in Switzerland along the entire value chain using modern technology,’ said Raabe. Prior to joining Halo Raabe held senior sales positions at Crealogix Group and Avaloq.
With 42 members across the entire value chain - issuers, trading platforms and buy-side, brokers and partners, the SSPA represents the interests of the market’s top players, which together account for more than 95% by volume of structured products in Switzerland.
UBS acquires US robo-advisor in distribution expansion
UBS has agreed to acquire Wealthfront, a digital wealth management provider targeting millennial and Gen Z affluent investors, in an all-cash transaction valued at US$1.4 billion.
The acquisition is aimed at accelerating UBS’ growth ambitions in the US, as well broaden the firm’s reach among affluent investors and expand its distribution and capabilities.
With over $27 billion in assets under management and more than 470,000 clients in the US, Wealthfront provides access to financial planning capabilities, banking services and investment management solutions. Following the transaction, Wealthfront will access UBS’s wealth management capabilities, products and services, including structured products.
Wealthfront tried to replicate the risk parity strategy of hedge fund Bridgewater using the robo-advisor’s software-based approach in 2018 with the launch of the Wealthfront Risk Parity Fund includes investments in commodity-linked derivative securities, such as structured notes, and is part of the robo-advisor’s PassivePlus suite of investment features, which include tax loss harvesting, direct indexing and advanced indexing.
‘Wealthfront complements our core business in the US providing wealth management to high-net-worth and ultra-high-net worth investors through trusted relationships with financial advisors, and will enhance our long-term ambition to deliver a scalable, digital-led wealth management solution to affluent investors,’ said Ralph Hamers, group chief executive officer of UBS.
Wealthfront will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of UBS and will operate as a business within UBS Global Wealth Management Americas. The transaction is currently expected to close in the second half of 2022, subject to closing conditions including regulatory approvals.
Simon reports 94% increase in volume
US multi-issuer structured products provider has reported a year-over-year increase in volume of +94% and usage of +67%.
The platform also announced several new strategic partnerships to expand its product offering for financial professionals and released several enhancements to its digital platform to improve the way advisors manage client accounts.
‘Simon closed out 2021 with several milestones that underscore the velocity of the growth we’re experiencing - we introduced a partnership with +Subscribe to power our new marketplace for alternatives, collaborations with Envestnet, FIDx, and Fidelity that expand the reach of our platform’s capabilities across wealth managers and RIAs, and an integration with Rowboat Advisors that enhances the capabilities of our portfolio allocation tool, Simon Spectrum,’ said Jason Broder, CEO of Simon.
According to SRP data, there are 6,623 products listed on the Simon Platform with a value of US$18.5 billion. Goldman Sachs with US$10 billion is the most active issuer on Simon followed by J.P. Morgan, TD Securities and Morgan Stanley.
Simon Markets is owned by a consortium of seven financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Credit Suisse, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Prudential and Wells Fargo.
HSBC integrates with Bloomberg AIM to deliver post-trade workflow
HSBC and Bloomberg have launched a collaboration to offer a post-trade workflow through product and data integrations.
The integration brings together Bloomberg AIM’s investment and order management system (OMS), with HSBC’s middle office technology and operational capabilities to help support efficient real-time trade management processes, including trade lifecycle, matching and settlement.
“We see this as a natural evolution to our strategy of providing connectivity directly to our clients’ preferred front office solutions,’ said Alan Plom, global head of middle office for securities services, HSBC. ‘Clients will benefit from higher straight-through processing rates and data accuracy, minimising operational risks and costs while maintaining oversight of the end-to-end process.’
The offering is now live and available to Bloomberg clients that outsource their middle office operations to HSBC.
The collaboration is the first of a series of ongoing integrations between Bloomberg Buy-Side Solutions and HSBC as a part of the bank’s strategy ‘to drive additional simplicity, transparency, and insights into the investing and servicing lifecycle’.
Professional investors losing out on inflation
Professional investors across Europe believe the biggest risks facing investors is the lack of trust in central banks’ ability to stave off high inflation, with inflation (52%) and policy errors by central banks (51%), according to a survey commissioned by exchange-traded fund (ETF) and exchange-traded product (ETP) WisdomTree.
With inflation in Europe now well above the two percent target levels, 72% of professional investors have begun preparing for high inflation, according to the survey. When asked how investors are preparing to mitigate the inflationary environment, 47% indicated by allocating to commodities. Whilst a further 23% are considering allocating to the asset class to lessen the impact of inflation on their portfolios.
Despite commodities being well-known for their inflation hedging properties the preferred way for most European professional investors (55%) to access the asset class is through commodity-linked equities.
According to the survey, just 27% of European professional investors choose, or would choose, to invest via synthetic exposures, and 24% via physically-backed exposures - the most efficient methods to access commodities and hedge against inflation.
The most common assets for European professional investors to allocate to for inflation hedging purposes, as revealed by the survey, include equities (78%), inflation linked bonds (58%) and infrastructure (47%). Broad commodities (46%) and gold (28%), both historically good inflation hedges did not feature in the top three asset classes, though 33% of European professional investors expect to increase their allocations to energy and 29% will increase allocations to soft commodities in the next 12 months.