The market was in spotlight as industry professionals gathered at the SRP France Conference 2025 in Paris.
Julien Laroche, director at Autorité des Marchés Financiers (France’s Financial Markets Authority or AMF) kicked off a panel centring on key regulatory topics involving decrement overlay for underlying assets to ‘value for money’.
From the impact of Trump’s presidency to legal challenges, three panellists in an afternoon panel focused on the evolving use of ESG indices in structured products where defensive theme has gained ground.
Meanwhile, the insurance segment is too big to ignore by making up 80% of structured products flow in the country. French insurance group Groupama has seen an accretion of thematic products in the principal protected format, said Robin Ribatto, head of alternative assets, at a panel.
Other wrappers like actively managed certificates (AMCs) and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are also deployed to diversify portfolios through active management. Schroders continues to build up its index-related business launched three years ago to offer indices across wrappers while leveraging its funds on the shelf.
Mayer Brown has identified two main reasons for the decline in ESG product adoption in France: unclear greenwashing claim risks and regulatory uncertainty, particularly around the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) regime.
Investors in central and eastern Europe are increasingly opting for single stock underlyings
Beyond France, investors in central and eastern Europe are increasingly opting for single stock underlyings while FX-rates also remained a popular option in the first quarter of 2025, last week’s Spotlight shows.
In Switzerland, yield enhancement products claimed 92% of the market in March while FX rate-linked structures increased by more than 10% YoY. An estimated CHF14.9 billion (US$17.2 billion) was collected from 31,165 products that struck in the country during the month, according to our Switzerland Market Review, March 2025.
Sales of retail structured products in the UK registered their lowest levels since December 2024. An estimated £98m (US$133m) was collected from 67 publicly offered structured products in April, our UK Market Review, April 2025 shows.
Across the border, Ireland saw 22 publicly offered structured products worth an estimated €187m struck during Q1 2025. “We continue to see opportunities for capital protected and growth products,” Mark Caffrey, director structured solutions at Davy told SRP.
At the same time, J.P. Morgan is seeking to expand its listed products offering in the Nordics and France as it consolidates its footprint in Germany and Austria. SRP caught up with Marcel Biere, head of equity derivatives solutions (EDG) and cross-asset structuring to discuss the bank’s progress over the last few years.
On the regulatory side, the European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) has issued a paper seeking feedback on how retail investors engage with the investment industry, and whether there are regulatory or other barriers preventing their participation in capital markets.
In Asia, digital wealth platform Arta Finance has launched a Shariah-compliant investment offering, providing accredited investors and institutional partners with access to certified strategies aligned with Islamic finance principles.
Australian multi-issuer platform Stropro is adding a structured option and loan facility to its shelf as it looks to attract financial advisors seeking to capitalise on the digital execution and lifecycle reporting features of the new offering during the country’s tax season.
China Merchants Bank continues to lead the manufacturers ranking as the largest issuer of retail structured deposits. The SRP database registered 1,045 retail structured deposits issued in April in China, higher from 941 recorded during the same period of last year, our China Market Review, April 2025 shows.
In addition, the Hong Kong market saw Nvidia stock continue to be the most favoured pick for equity-linked investments in April. On the listed product fronts, listing of derivative warrants (DWs) rose to 858 from 807 in April from the previous month. Callable bull/bear contracts (CBBCs) drop to 3,163 from nearly 4,000 in the prior month, however.
In the US, Geoffroy Samarcq will join RBC Capital Markets in July as head of multi-asset QIS structuring based in New York as the Canadian bank is seeking to bolster its quantitative investment strategy (QIS).
Samarcq was most recently managing director, head of global FICC & Americas equities QIS structuring during his four years at J.P. Morgan in New York.
Last but not least, we turned our attention to Rho, the Greek that measures an option’s sensitivity to changes in the risk-free rate as part of our Greek analysis.
Image: Adil/Adobe Stock
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