Latest: SSPA to launch structured products ‘simulator’

The new profile also reflects the innovative power and diversity of the association, whose members cover the entire industry value chain. Since its foundation in 2006, the association has developed steadily and today has 40 members ranging from issuers, trading platforms and buy-side to brokers and partners.

Parallel to the rebranding, the Swiss trade body is launching a new website offering ‘tailormade information on structured products and their features as well as the range of possible applications’. The association is planning in a further website expansion phase the launch of a simulation tool in collaboration with experts from the University of Zurich.

The new tool is planned to go live within the fourth quarter and will enable users to create one of the four most popular products in Switzerland and simulate their performance in four different market scenarios based on historical data and real events.

The SSPA is also releasing the third edition of its reference manual  The World of Structured Products by the end of October. The manual provides information on all product types available in Switzerland and is aligned with the SSPA Swiss Derivative Map.

Romanian broker enters VSE with structured products plan

Romanian firm BRK Financial Group (BRK) has been admitted to trading by Vienna Stock Exchange.

BRK is Romania's leading retail broker and one of the founding members of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The only publicly listed Romanian broker joins a pool of 85 banks and investment firms are currently admitted to trading on the VSE (national: 27, international: 58).

The Romanian firm is seeking ‘more and better trading opportunities’ as well as to leverage the latest technologies in trading as it implements the first stage of its expansion strategy by listing its ‘own structured products on regional markets’, said Monica Ivan, CEO of BRK Financial Group.

‘As one of the leading Romanian structured products issuers and liquidity providers, we are proud to tap into new markets,’ said Ivan.

Solactive releases ESG benchmark series 

Solactive and San Francisco-based AI-driven ESG data provider, Truvalue Labs, have joined forces to create a new series of ESG Indices designed to offer investors with diversified exposure to global large- and mid-cap equities with strong ESG characteristics.

The new index range will deploy Truevalue Labs’ artificial intelligence algorithm, which parses big data from more than 115,000 sources and produces ESG metrics in real-time, to bypass conventional company disclosures and have an independent perspective on a company’s ESG performance.

The composition of the first index deployed under the partnership is the Solactive Truvalue ESG United States Index – the index builds on the Solactive GBS United States Large & Mid Cap USD Index, which covers more than 500 US large and mid-cap stocks.

In the first stage, companies classified in controversial industries such as oil and gas production, coal mining, or tobacco are excluded from the index. Based on Truvalue Labs’ data, the remaining companies are ranked via the ESG provider’s proprietary Volume and Insight Scores. The stocks constituting the final index are weighted according to their free-float market capitalization.

GraniteShares crosses US$1.5 billion in AUM on ETF platform

US ETF provider GraniteShares has surpassed US$1.5 billion in assets under management (AUM) just over three months after the firm crossed US$1 billion AUM, fuelled by the surge in assets to its flagship low-cost physical gold ETF (BAR) - now hovering at US$1.3 billion AUM.

The firm also reported strong growth in its smart beta equity ETF (XOUT), which seeks to eliminate companies that may be vulnerable to technological disruption. This ETF has benefited from the trend of investors seeking alternatives to traditional passive equity indexes, according to Will Rhind, founder and CEO of GraniteShares.

GraniteShares’ ETF suite provides investment strategies focused on the firm’s three core pillars of commodities, income and disruptive core equity. Products include the GraniteShares Gold Trust (BAR); GraniteShares Bloomberg Commodity Broad Strategy No K-1 ETF (COMB); GraniteShares Platinum Trust (PLTM); GraniteShares HIPS US High Income ETF (HIPS); and GraniteShares XOUT US Large Cap ETF (XOUT).

The firm’s UK platform offers more than 40 leveraged single-stock exchange-traded products (ETPs), long and short, including the only 3x leveraged Tesla products available across markets, the GraniteShares 3x Long Tesla Daily ETP (3LTS) and the GraniteShares 3x Short Tesla Daily ETP (3STS).

SGX lists the world’s largest Chinese pure government bond tracker

Singapore Exchange (SGX) has listed the world’s largest Chinese pure government bond exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Managed by CSOP Asset Management Limited (CSOP AM), the institutional-grade ETF was developed in partnership with ICBC Wealth Management and ICBC Asset Management (Global) as its investment advisors, and its targeted at investors looking for opportunities in China’s onshore bond markets - the second largest bond market in the world at US$15 trillion.

The tracker replicates the performance of fixed-rate government bonds issued in mainland China as measured by the FTSE Chinese Government Bond Index (CGBI).

The ETF is CSOP Asset Management’s first listing on SGX, and is also the first ETF to utilise the new Variable Capital Companies (VCC) framework launched by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) this year.

The fund garnered resounding investor interest with an initial assets under management (AUM) of US$676 million (RMB 4.6 billion) at the end of the subscription period.

The total market turnover value of SGX-listed ETFs reached USS$4.1 billion in FY2020, a 70% increase from the preceding year. As at end June 2020, total AUM for all SGX-listed ETFs amounted to USS$5.8 billion.