Latest: SocGen expands listed products offering to Italy

Société Générale (SG) is expanding its daily constant leverage products and vanilla warrant products offering listed on Spectrum Markets available to Italy, according to the statement from the pan-European trading venue for securitised derivatives.

We see significant demand for our range of securitised derivative products from retail investors across Europe - Didier Imbert, SG

The multilateral trading facility (MTF) stated that its scalable architecture allows the French bank to extend the scope of its geographic coverage within the trading venue without going through the process of listing new instruments.

The addition of these products amides to extend ‘the range of investment solutions available to Italian retail investors via Spectrum, allowing them to benefit from a deeper pool of European liquidity,’ according to the statement from the trading venue led by CEO Nicky Maan (right).

SG’s products first became available on the MTF to retail investors in Spain, Sweden, Norway, and Finland at the end of 2022. Spectrum stated it will continue to manage a unique, international order book for each individual instrument listed by SG.

‘Our experience with Spectrum Markets has been very good so far,’ said Didier Imbert (pictured), head of public distribution Europe at SG. ‘We see significant demand for our range of securitised derivative products from retail investors across Europe and we very much look forward to seeing how this partnership continues to develop in the coming years.’

Spectrum Markets MTF onboards Italian retail broker

Meanwhile, Italy’s retail broker Directa SIM – representing over 61,000 retail investors and €3.5 billion (US$3.73 billion) of assets under custody – has joined Spectrum as its new trading member, using technology to act as its own settlement agent, according to the MTF.

The new partnership means more Italian retail investors can now trade securitised derivatives on Spectrum 24/5, stated MTF.

‘Since we’ve been in business, I’ve never seen stronger interest in the European retail investor community, and this is coming from a whole range of financial institutions: from issuers to brokers and everything in between,’ Maan said.

Germany’s DDV renames as Bundesverband für strukturierte Wertpapiere (BSW)

The German Derivatives Association (Deutscher Derivate Verband, or DDV), the industry representative body of the issuers of structured securities in Germany, is now remaining as the German Structured Securities Association (Bundesverband für strukturierte Wertpapiere, or BSW).

‘With the change of the name to the BSW, we are replacing the technical term of derivative,’ Henning Bergmann and Christian Vollmut (right), co-CEOs of the association, said during the presentation of the new association name at the annual industry forum in Frankfurt, initially reported by local media.

‘In doing so, we are positioning structured securities where the majority should be classified: shoulder-to-shoulder between the traditional security categories of bonds and equities,’ they said.

‘As genuine securities, our members’ financial products deserve to be called such,’ Vollmuth highlighted, adding the qualifications these member institutions have, such as having ‘prospectuses approved by the supervisory authority,’ ‘transparent payout profiles,’ ‘are listed on stock exchanges,’ and ‘use the entire infrastructure of securities trading and settlement’.

According to the association, the 15 member institutions of the BSW, such as Barclays and BNP Paribas, account for a market volume of structured securities amounting to €95 billion, according to the association. Investment products comprise over 97% of this market volume, with leverage products accounting for the remainder.

In August 2022, the association agreed on a revised, expanded edition of the Sustainability Code of Conduct, to incorporate statutory provisions for sustainable finance that have changed since its guidelines were published in April 2021.

IG Group’s revenue slightly up, OTC derivatives profit falls

British online trading platform IG Group has posted a total revenue of £242.9m in its first quarter of FY24, a slight increase from the prior-year quarter (£241.8m), according to the firm’s statement on 14 September (today).

The figure reflected ‘the benefit of business diversification over the past few years,’ stated the firm led by acting CEO and chief financial officer Charlie Rozes (right).

Yet, over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives saw their total revenue drop eight percent year-on-year (YoY) to £182.7m for the three months ended 31 August. The downturn was boosted by exchange-traded derivatives and stock trading, both of which grew by 37% YoY to £49.8m and 61% YoY to £10.4m, respectively.

‘Similar to trends seen in Q4 FY23, a decrease in net trading revenue reflected substantially lower volatility across a range of asset classes, which was more than offset by strong growth in interest income, which resulted from a combination of higher interest rates and stable client money balances from the year end,’ stated IG.

Meanwhile, total active clients across the group in the quarter were 267,000, which was down four percent YoY.

VettaFi acquires EQM Indexes

VettaFi, the New York-based indexing, data and analytics, and digital distribution company, has announced the acquisition of index development firm EQM Indexes.

VettaFi’s latest acquisition came after buying the ROBO Global Index suite in April. With the latest acquisition of EQM Indexes, the firm stated it now supports nearly US$19 billion in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other investment vehicles, including direct indexing solutions.

‘A great investment idea can often remain just that: an idea,’ Brian Coco, head of index products at VettaFi, said in a statement. ‘But with a well-constructed index, great investment ideas can become great investments. Building custom indexes is something at which [co-founder] Jane [Edmondson] and EQM have long excelled, and we are very excited to add EQM’s expertise to our index offerings.’

HSBC Malaysia unveils investment account opening service on mobile app

HSBC has launched a new feature on its HSBC Malaysia mobile banking app, allowing its premier customers to open investment accounts – namely for unit trusts, bonds, and sukuk – with the bank from the app itself, according to the bank's announcement.

HSBC Malaysia stated it targets to double its assets under management (AUM) by 2025 from the 2020 AUM position, focusing on areas such as unit trusts and structured investments while accelerating its mobile wealth and digital capabilities. 

Linda Yip, country head of wealth and personal banking of HSBC Malaysia, said that digitalisation is a vital part of its wealth business, highlighting that the bank’s broad wealth solutions consist of unit trusts, bonds/sukuk, structured investments, dual currency investments, foreign currencies, and insurance.

‘We use a hybrid model of relationship managers and wealth specialists, supported by digital wealth capabilities to serve our customers holistically,’ she said. ‘This is part and parcel of our ambition to be the leading wealth manager in the country, and in line with our commitment to meet our customers’ needs in managing their wealth, retirement and legacy planning.’

HSBC first introduced the web browser version of the investment account opening service in May 2022 through HSBC online banking. To complement the service, the bank rolled out a suite of digital wealth services, which includes EZInvest on mobile and unit trust browser. The new service is embedded within the wealth tab in the HSBC Malaysia mobile banking app.