Leonteq Securities was ordered by a court to reinstate a compliance officer while UBS appointed a new Asia equity derivatives head – here is the latest product news, people moves and market reviews from SRP’s news desk.
We started the week with a new record posted by Marex Group which reported US$3.1 billion structured notes balance as of 31 March, an all-time high based on its quarterly earnings reports.
With an average maturity of 16 months, the portfolio comprised 5,099 issuances, a climb from 4,029 a quarter ago, the British non-banking issuer’s Q1 2025 earnings report showed. Revenue from structured notes, however, declined 4.7% to US$30.7m at Marex in the first quarter of the year compared to a robust Q4 2024 when the revenue almost doubled.
The Leonteq saga came back to the front page after a Paris labour tribunal ruled that a senior compliance officer working at Leonteq Securities (Europe), a plaintiff of the case, acted ‘in good faith’ when he reported suspicious transactions to the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) in 2021, according to a court ruling seen by SRP.
The dismissal of the plaintiff on the grounds of ‘gross negligence’ on 5 October 2021 was revoked as he was found eligible for the protective status of whistleblower based on the French law Sapin II (which mandates anti-corruption compliance programmes for companies), said Judge Younès Yazidi-Percevault.
SIX Swiss Exchange reported a second consecutive month of record-breaking growth in structured product listings
Still in Switzerland, SIX Swiss Exchange reported a second consecutive month of record-breaking growth in structured product listings, reaching 26,169 in April – up 68% compared to March and a 1.5-fold increase year-on-year. Such an increased listing was tied to “market volatility due to the tariff war from the US beginning of April, where issuers had to keep up to date product portfolio to meet investor demand,” Sébastien Neukom, head structured products sales at the exchange told SRP.
In Austria, the country’s largest bank Erste Group Bank said it will acquire a 49% stake in Poland’s third-largest bank, Santander Bank Polska, for approximately €6.8 billion (US$7.6 billion) and a 50% stake in Santander Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych (Santander TFI) for approximately €0.2 billion. Santander Bank Polska was the number one structured products distributor in Poland during 2024, capturing 24% of the market, ahead of Bank Millennium (23%) and BNP Paribas Bank Polska (17%), SRP data shows.
In Slovakia, an estimated €164m (US$50.8m) was collected from 31 publicly offered structured products during the first quarter of 2025, SRP data shows. Sales increased by five percent compared to the previous quarter; year-on-year volumes were up by 15%.
BNP Paribas Fortis Funding, the Luxembourg issuance vehicle owned by BNP Paribas Fortis, issued 19 securities worth €1.5 billion (US$1.6 billion) during 2024, a three-fold increase by sales volume on a yearly basis, while Morgan Stanley BV, the Dutch-registered structured notes issuer of Morgan Stanley, has posted stable net profit of €1.1m (US$1.2m) for the year of 2024, its latest annual report shows.
SRP’s Nikolay Nikolov wrote in the latest Spotlight series that around 3,600 products, or 93% of maturities for French structured products in 2024, autocalled before their final maturity. These products delivered an average annualised return of 8.7%, with an average duration of around 1.5-years.
Pivoting to Asia, UBS named Michael Abou-Seif as the new head of equity derivatives Asia Pacific on an ad-interim basis, in addition to his current role as head of index flow derivatives trading for the region.
Abou-Seif replaces Ernest Ng, who previously spent 14 years at Credit Suisse with a background in trading before being appointed for his last role at UBS in 2024. He’s set to join hedge fund Millennium Management as a senior portfolio manager, SRP has learned. The US hedge fund also hired Eric Govind, Morgan Stanley’s former head of equities trading for Asia, SRP understands.
South Korea’s sales of structured products increased to KRW6.58 trillion (US$4.7 billion) in April, up 54% year-on-year, according to SRP data. The sales jump was seen across the board, including capital-at-risk equity-linked securities (ELS) and capital protection-focused equity-linked bonds (ELBs) whose volumes increased by 98% and 35% YoY, respectively.
Australian issuer Anadara is set to roll out a leveraged memory coupon note wrapped in a deferred purchase agreement (DPA) as it looks to attract the country’s retail investors via the tax strategy-focused investment during tax season.
Meanwhile, Guotai Junan International sets foot to launch a tokenised securities distribution business in Hong Kong following its securing the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong’s confirmation on 7 May that it had no further questions about its business plan.
Image: Doomu/Adobe Stock.
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