A Royal Decree in Belgium, which included a risk label for investment products submitted last year by the Di Rupo government to better inform retail investors about the savings and investment products they buy, has been postponed. The Royal Decree was due to be implemented in June 2015.

The legislator wants to avoid financial institutions having to prepare a standard document which they later have to adapt to conform to the requirements of the European packaged retail investment and insurance-based investment products (Priips) regulation, which also includes a risk indicator information document and is due for implementation at the end of 2016.

Belgium’s structured investment market continues to move towards products denominated in US dollars, with the currency increasing in value against the euro by more than 20% since January 2014. Use of the dollar means more money can be used to buys option and so offer greater participation on the upside of the underlying. Forty-two percent of all new products distributed in Belgium during April were denominated in the US currency, up from 32% in March and up from 14% in April 2014. Of the 155 structured products with total sales of €2.2bn which have strike dates in 2015, 53 structured products worth €699m were denominated in dollars.

In the Netherlands, BinckBank reported that outstanding finance from its turbo range amounted to €130.3m in the first quarter of 2015, up from €92.8m in the previous quarter. Income from this outstanding finance came to €503,000 in the first quarter, up 45% from €300,000 in the last quarter of 2014. The number of transactions in Binck turbos rose to 148,226 in the first quarter of this year, compared with 101,490 in the fourth quarter of 2014.

For March 2015, measured across the whole Dutch market, Binck’s market share was 22% in terms of turnover and 21% in the number of transactions, according to Jean-Paul van Oudheusden, head of business development for retail at BinckBank. “That gives an indication of how big we are as a distribution platform, especially when you take into consideration that Binck turbos are only available to our own clients,” said Van Oudheusden.

To calculate its market share for March, Van Oudheusden has added the figures for the Binck turbos, which are traded via the German Cats platform, to the figures provided by Euronext Amsterdam. According to the exchange, BNP Paribas had a turnover of 33% in March, followed by ING (22%), Goldman Sachs (14.5%), Commerzbank (7.6%) and Citi (3.3%).

ING, which topped the table in terms of the number of trades with a market share of 32.6%, ahead of BNP Paribas (31.9%), Commerzbank (10%), Goldman Sachs (8.6%) and Citi (5.7%), first introduced its leveraged sprinter certificates in October 2008.

“Our advantage is that we are a Dutch issuer. Credit risk has become o so relevant after Lehman,” said Zico Yeh, head of structured investments at ING Commercial Banking in Amsterdam. “Education is also becoming increasingly important, not just for leverage products, but all structured products,” said Yeh. “That is something we are working on non-stop.” An example of an educational initiative is the trading game that ING is running with RTL Z (Dutch business and financial news television channel broadcasted on RTL 7).

Meanwhile, the liquidators of Lehman Brothers Treasury Co BV (LBT) have announced that investors in structured notes issued by the Dutch-domiciled investment vehicle are due to receive a fifth payout. The indicative distribution rate of this fifth payment is 3.41% ($795m/€728m), according to Rutger Schimmelpenninck and Frédéric Verhoeven, the liquidators from the law firm Houthoff Buruma.

To give an example, LBT’s Garantie Bonus Notes 9, which were distributed via Dutch fund manager Wijs & Van Oostveen, sold €7.9m when it was first launched in June 2008. Investors in the notes, which were due to mature in October 2017, will this month share a distribution payment of €267,261.

Click here to view the full April Belgian review and here for the full Dutch review.

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