A group of UK retail structured product providers today launched the UK Structured Products Association (UK SPA).
The association lists Citi, Credit Suisse, Legal & General, Morgan Stanley, Prudential, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Skandia as members. These firms have funded the organisation so far. A spokesperson was unable to say whether plan managers are entitled to apply for full membership, but for the moment at least Gilliat, Walker Crips, Jubilee and Meteor sit on a separate independent plan managers and distributors committee.
The association said its role was primarily informative. "The Association gives providers an opportunity to inform and educate the investment community, and we believe its efforts will help them to better understand how these products work and how they can be incorporated sensibly into a well-constructed investment portfolio," said a launch statement. "The Association is a positive step forward for the UK structured products market. As a unified voice, it will offer commentary and insight covering all aspects of structured products and we are committed to the aims of the organisation."
The chair will rotate among the members, but a spokesperson for the association from Peregrine Communications, which is acting as a sort of secretariat as well as PR firm, said it will not name any individuals, either as chair or committee; the members wanted it that way. "This is a 'no name' association," he said. Rather than being an organisation 'about its members for its members', like many others, it is designed to educate and inform IFAs and the public. The organisation may adopt more structure in the future, however.
The UK SPA said it will work closely with other organisations, such as the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA) and the European Structured Investment Product Association (Eusipa) to achieve its goals. Yesterday, the US Structured Products Association boasted of a 1,000-strong membership in the UK and promised to establish a UK office in January. Asked about the potential relationship between the two organisations, the UK association's spokesman said the two are completely different beasts. Since it is not clear what the US association would know about UK regulation, the UK association had developed an affiliation with Eusipa, which operates in a relevant regulatory environment, he said. The UK organisation will not immediately have a lobbying role.