SRP in brief: advisors open to crypto, innovation still alive

Jefferies Financial Group issued a structured note linked to the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) last week, the first for the US market, a preliminary pricing sheet the firm filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed.

The timing coincided with investors’ gathering optimism for the “crypto week” in Washington, with Bitcoin’s price surging to US$120,000 for the first time last Monday.

We have had multiple clients interested in expressing a view on IBIT - Patrick McWalter, Jefferies Financial Group

“We have had multiple clients interested in expressing a view on IBIT and believe this product could fit well with the registered investment advisor (RIA) and private bank community,” said Patrick McWalter, the firm’s managing director, head of US structured product distribution.

Last Monday also saw ProShares roll out its first ETF offering exposure to XRP, the cryptocurrency used by the Ripple payment network, through future contracts after receiving approval from NYSE Arca.

In the exchange-traded product market, Hamilton Capital Partners has listed a suite of three DayMAX ETFs on Cboe Canada offering access to Canadian and US equities, marking the first Canadian ETFs that use zero days to expiration (0DTE) options to provide income.

On SIX Swiss Exchange, nearly 12,000 structured products were listed in June, down 12% compared to May but an increase of 46% year-on-year. 92% of the products were leveraged products.

Marex Financial Products has issued its first structured ‘cash-and-carry’ note linked to cobalt. This new structure was executed by Marex’s accessing physical cobalt in the spot market, hold it, and simultaneously sell cobalt futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

In Asia, Standard Chartered Bank’s wealth arm recorded a double-digit year-on-year growth in the notional value of its structured products in the first half of 2025, with around 60% to 70% of the volumes stemming from equity-linked structures, said Nicolas Rigois, the British bank’s global head of capital market products and solutions.

In Hong Kong, Amundi has launched a guaranteed fund. As its first structured fund in the market, the product provides 80% participation in the performance of the S&P 500 Daily Risk Control 5% USD Excess Return Index minus applicable new payment obligations.

Julius Baer appointed Hong Kong-based Kin Lee as global head of structured products & FX management and development. Lee is responsible for managing the structured product shelf, as well as developing and managing digital asset-related products across regions based on investment needs and the regulatory landscape, the spokesperson at the Swiss private bank told SRP.

 In South Korea, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) is conducting a consultation to strengthen the sales assessment process of ‘high-difficulty financial investment products’, including equity-linked securities (ELS), to prevent mis-selling cases.

The increased investor assessment and the heightened appropriateness checks which list the types of consumers who are unsuitable, risks and potential losses are among the new measures introduced by the regulator.

SRP data shows sales of structured products in Korea surged to a record monthly high since last December, reaching nearly KRW7.1 trillion (US$5.1 billion) in June.

Also on regulation, the Swiss Structured Products Association (SSPA) has finalised its guidelines for tracker certificates linked to non-tradable underlyings as well as the corresponding frequently asked questions (FAQs).

With these guidelines, the SSPA aims to set a minimum transparency standard for identifying and labelling tracker certificates linked to non-tradable underlyings – including real estate, private equity, hedge funds, collectibles, wines, watches, cars and art, among others – whilst at the same time disclosing the risks.

In the Nordics region, an estimated US$575m was collected from 274 publicly offered structured products that struck during Q1 2025 in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, down 18% year-on-year. Hybrid underlyings held 26% market share (from 91 products), up from 20% in the previous quarter and 16% in Q1 2024.

Also in France last week, Banque Neuflize-OBC, the French branch of ABN Amro Bank, distributed Neuflize Alternat Juillet 2033. Issued on the paper of HSBC Continental Europe, the eight-year medium-term note (MTN) offers access to the Eurostoxx 50, which represents the performance of the 50 largest companies among the 20 supersectors in the Eurozone.

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