Vontobel's Financial Products reported increases in all areas of its structured products business in the third quarter of 2017, which has resulted in net new money across all divisions, according to the bank's quarterly results. 'The... development of the business in the first nine months of the year shows that Vontobel is solidly positioned with its broadbased business model and is performing well in a challenging competitive environment,' stated Zeno Staub (pictured), chief executive officer of Vontobel, in a release.

Advised client assets reached a record CHF175.3bn (€150.5bn) at the end of September 2017, a trend that 'reflects the ongoing diversification within the boutiques in asset management' as well as the strong net inflow of new money in wealth management across all regions. The bank's financial products division 'continued its international expansion with its successful market debut in Hong Kong and grew its market share in Europe and Switzerland'.

The Swiss bank is the fifth most active European issuer - with 117,188 products marketed year to date - and tops the sales volume ranking with €6,4bn sold so far this year, according to SRP data. In Switzerland, Vontobel appears as the third most active issuer of products, with 7,528 this year, and is the top seller, with sales of €5.2bn). Vontobel reported that its financial products business has secured a leading position with a market share of 25% in its home market and of over 10% in Europe (measured in terms of the exchange-traded volumes).

In the third quarter, the bank gained further market share in Germany, where it has over 68,000 live products and now ranks as the fourth most successful provider of structured products in Germany and Austria. In early September, Vontobel Financial Products entered the Hong Kong market with the launch of its first 10 listed structured products on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It also entered the French leveraged products market as part of its European expansion, and, shortly after, poached Stefan Armbruster, Deutsche Bank's global head for retail structured products, who joined the Swiss bank in March as head of Vontobel Financial Products, Germany.

Vontobel's next step is the roll-out its 'Vontobel Investment Scout' mobile app, which was launched in July in Switzerland, for private investors in Germany. The app allows private investors to directly select and issue structured products via their smartphones. In addition to entering new markets, the Swiss bank remains focused on digitisation and the implementation of regulatory requirements such as Mifid 2.

The bank's wealth management and external asset managers attracted substantial net new money in the third quarter and advised client assets had reached over CHF50bn. The wealth management division is still targeting a 4%-6% rise in net new money, far above the market average.

Furthermore, asset management delivered a strong performance and a positive trend in net new money in the third quarter of 2017. TwentyFour Asset Management, the bank's fixed-income boutique's assets under management have risen by 40% since the start of 2017, an increase of CHF4bn. The company has over CHF13bn of AUM.

The bank also reported that the combination of its thematic investing and sustainable investing boutiques, which resulted in the launch of the Sustainable and Thematic Boutique in the middle of October has positioned the bank as 'leading provider of sustainable investments' with CHF10bn of assets under management.

As part of the implementation of Mifid 2, Vontobel Asset Management has decided to absorb research costs for clients, which will result in additional costs in the low single-digit millions of Swiss francs per year, which are already factored into the 2020 targets published at the end of August 2017.

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