It was a busy week for the US index-linked annuity market, and elsewhere.
Nationwide has added the Loomis Sayles Discovery Index to its fixed index annuities (FIAs) in partnership with Citi and Annexus.
The growth-oriented index seeks to reduce the impact of changing interest rates and inflation by allocating across US equity, global rates alternative and commodities alternative.
Following its inception on 14 June, the index is now available via the Nationwide Hew Heights Select FIA, along with newly-added Nasdaq 100 Volatility Control 10% PR Index which went live on 31 July.
FIA sales have continued to rally by closing the third quarter at yet another record high at US$35.8 billion, a 16.6% climb quarter-on-quarter
In the latest US Individual Annuity Sales Survey released by Limra, FIA sales have continued to rally by closing the third quarter at yet another record high at US$35.8 billion, a 16.6% climb quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) or a 58.4% surge year-on-year (YoY).
Meanwhile, registered index-linked annuities (Rilas) have retained their momentum with US$17.1 billion sales in Q3 2024 despite it displaying a slower pace.
Staying in the US, broker-dealer Stifel Financial is slated to collect US$3 billion gross sales of structured products by year-end driven by its private client group, which will be a 30% growth from 2023.
Meanwhile, the firm's employee advisor arm Stifel Nicolas & Co was embroiled in structured notes mis-selling centring on its Miami-based advisor Chuck A. Roberts.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) has ordered the subsidiary to pay US$2.3m to the claimants following its award of US$14.2m to another group of investors also related to the sales of structured notes in October.
At the same time, Miami-based broker-dealer Smith, Brown & Groover (SBG) has agreed to pay a partial restitution of US$2m to more than 350 retail customers who suffered ‘near total losses’ from a strategy that primarily invested in the VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short Term ETN (XIV), according to Finra.
American index ratings and forecasts provider The Index Standard has contributed to an article analysing intraday risk control indices, stating 'sometimes too good can be true'.
We continued to bring panel coverage from our inaugural Derivia Intelligence Middle East that was held in Dubai on 20 November.
A group of panellists discussed the role of structured products in insurance and pension funds. The long-term nature of structured products can help match the institutional investors' assets to their long-term liabilities, such as annuity payments and pension obligations, said Neelam Verma, CEO at WealthLink Solutions.
Another group panellists argued that index innovation in structured products has been pushed by various areas, ranging from customisation to regulation in the Middle East.
In Europe, French fintech platform for structured products Aydo has raised undisclosed new funding from venture capital investors, led by Digital Tech Fund, with the proceeds to be partly used to develop its Shape platform.
Unicredit has listed approximately 150,000 leverage and investment products in the Easy Euwax trading segment of Boerse Stuttgart Group.
Yield enhancement products lost some momentum in Switzerland last month as capital protection almost doubled its market share, according to SRP’s latest Switzerland Market Review, October 2024.
In the UK, products linked to a basket of indices significantly increased their market share as the autocall structure remains the number one payoff, according to the UK Market Review, October 2024.
Across the Pacific, Singapore's wealth manager WRISE has brought to the market fixed-coupon notes (FCNs) issued by CITIC CLSA and Guotai Junan Securities HK as it looks to reach the mass affluent segment with a minimum investment threshold of US$500,000.
Sequoia Specialists Investments has launched Capital Protected Series 1 & 2 in Australia. The two-year deferred purchase agreement offers access to the Macquarie MQCP900F Index, which comprises a basket of diversified commodity carry strategies, incorporating 10 strategies across four risk premia factors.
Nvidia-linked products deliver the best performance among all underlyings in the Asia-Pacific region in 2024 year-to-date (YTD), according to our Spotlight on Apac…best-performing products in 2024 YTD.
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