The Swiss Structured Products Association (SSPA) has added Cornèr Bank to its ranks as a new active member and buy-side representative as it continues to expand the association to cover the entire structured products value chain with issuers, markets, the buy-side and partners in equal measure.
Nicola Lafranchi (pictured), senior vice president at Cornèr Bank, said that as a local Swiss bank offering structured products as part of its professional wealth management service, the SSPA membership is an important move that underscores the bank's long term commitment to the Swiss structured products market and to Switzerland as a financial centre.
The Swiss bank is one of Leonteq five live partners in Switzerland alongside EFG International, Notenstein, La Roche, Helvetia and DBS. SRP data shows that Corner Bank's issuance in Switzerland increased from 12 products in 2014 to 48 products in 2015, an increase of 300%. The Swiss lender climbed up the issuance ranking and is now among the 15 more active providers in the market but remains a marginal player compared to the leading market players Vontobel (32% market share), Credit Suisse (12%), Leonteq (12%), Raiffeisen (11%), and Julius Baer (10%).
According to Lafranchi, Cornèr Bank is "extremely well capitalised and innovative" and will continue to take advantage of the collaboration with its partner Leonteq and respond to the shift in the Swiss market from leverage products such as warrants and mini-futures to participation products such as traker and bonus certificates, which begun in 2012.
"Yield Enhancement products are still high in demand due to the negative interest rates in CHF and EUR," said Lafranchi. "We have seen a renewed interest in both capital protected products and interest rate linked products such as floored floaters since the short term USD yield curve went slightly higher."
Lafranchi said that capital protection is still a driver of issuance but only around products that can be structured with '(high) yielding currencies' such as USD, GBP, or AUD. "Otherwise, higher volatilities and lower equity market's levels are still favoring barrier reverse convertibles," said Lafranchi.
Founded in Lugano in 1952, Cornèr Bank Group is an independent Swiss private bank group operating on the national market as a full-service bank. In addition to the traditional offering of banking services, the group specializes in the areas of lending and online trading.
SSPA's vice president Philipp Rickenbacher said that the admission of Cornèr Bank as the first member of Italian speaking Switzerland, reflects the association's strategy of having broad market support "in all different language areas of Switzerland".
Corner Bank has over 50 live structured products in the Swiss market of which eight are growth based and 46 are income structures.
By strengthening the buy-side, the SSPA is able to represent the interests of the entire industry in a comprehensive way, said Rickenbacher in a statement. SSPA represents the interests of the most important market participants, which together cover more than 95% of the market volume for structured products in Switzerland.
Related stories:
Swiss trade body continues buy-side push
SSPA adds Bloomberg as a passive member and partner
Swiss trade body opens to buy-side in membership push
SSPA points at 'facts instead of presumptions'