Structured products
WHAT IS THIS? Structured products are investments that have multiple components. For retail investors, the most common form is a bond plus an option – these tend to be standardised, sold in small tickets and large volumes. Managing the risks of large structured products portfolios is one of the biggest challenges dealers face.
A capital lifeline?
Guaranteeing investors' capital with your own bonds has always been a convenient way for banks to borrow money from investors at the same time as offering them a cut in the upside of the chosen underlying in a structured note. Such fundraising is often…
Baird steps forward
US distributor RW Baird founded its structured products business in 2007 from a standing start, building the infrastructure, compliance and educational initiatives from scratch. Sophia Morrell talks to Dayna Kleinman, the company's vice-president of…
Market snapshot
Tim Mortimer of Future Value Consultants looks at the pricing issues for structured products in different markets and provides his trade of the month
Habsburgo at the helm
Family office Habsburgo and Asociados in Mexico builds large, tailor-made portfolios comprised of structured products for its clients. The approach has paid off over the past year as the products have performed better than traditional assets, but while…
Wrap it up and start again
Marketing structured products is a tough challenge, with both nascent and established markets battered by the Lehman Brothers collapse. Meanwhile, providers must also adapt their techniques to suit interactive and online channels, and be increasingly…
More speed, more efficiency
Banks are increasingly aware of the speed and efficiency that is required to process data when creating and dealing in structured products. Calls for transparency and liquidity mean it is vital to choose systems that can cope with the products'…
The trace race
The concept of traceability has been a great success in the food industry. Would its adoption by the structured products industry be the quickest way to restore confidence in European markets and help a shattered banking sector? Participants at last…
Preaching protection
Continuing a series of interviews with national regulators about structured products, we talk to Maria Jose Gomez Yubero, head of investor protection at the Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores, about the fallout from the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy,…
Structural simplicity
Restoring confidence in structured products is top of equity derivatives dealers' agenda as they move to offer less complex instruments to jittery investors. But the industry faces a long haul to bring business back to levels witnessed in 2007. Jill Wong…
Exploiting Japan's renegade repos
Japanese equities
Editor's letter
Editorial
Editor's letter
Editorial
Gambling on dividends
Dividends have caused sizeable losses for dealers and investors over the recent months, as a precipitous fall in expectations has hit structured product issuers and those who participated in dividend swaps. Mark Pengelly investigates
Editor's letter
Editorial
HKMA urges firms to heed Lehman advice
Daily news headlines