From highlights from our Americans conference, the rebound of Belgian product activities to Hong Kong’s indexed universal life, here’s the weekly roundup brought by SRP News desk.

The SRP Americas 2025 conference had a successful run in Scottsdale, Arizona last week, where industry participants shared ideas on the impact of macroeconomic shifts on the structured products market, the strategies of using structured products in portfolio construction, as well as the growing trend of derivative-based funds and more.

The current higher-rate environment makes options cheaper and coupons higher but also increases sensitivity to other factors - Allison McCord, TD Securities

“The current higher-rate environment makes options cheaper and coupons higher but also increases sensitivity to other factors like dividends and forward curves,” Allison McCord, director, global equity derivatives at TD Securities, said during the opening panel.

Tom Layton, senior vice president of product management at Raymond James Global Wealth Solutions, noted in a buy-side-focused session that around 25% of the firm’s financial advisors use structured investments, pointing out the growing market over the past three or four years.

With Calamos Investments listing the first-ever autocallable ETF in June, Matt Kaufman, senior vice president, head of ETFs, sees there’s a framework for delivering structured note strategies into the exchange-traded fund (ETF) wrapper – “that's going to be a massive industry going forward.”

Meanwhile, J.P. Morgan’s Brandon Igyarto was elected as this season’s Personality of the Year, and SRP caught up with the sales veteran who spoke about his trajectory alongside the evolution of structured products over the past 20 years.

On the regulatory front, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved last week to streamline the listing rules for digital asset ETPs.

In the weekly Spotlight, we look at the Nasdaq 100 Futures Excess Return (ER) Index and a variant of such a strategy with a volatility control and decrement feature.

Looking at the European market, Luma Financial Technologies appointed Tara York as its new head of Europe, Middle East & Africa (Emea). Based in Zurich, York succeeds David Wood as Wood transitions into a global role as chief information officer.

Structured products rebounded in Belgium, with turnover for products issued in the country’s primary market reaching €877m (US$1 billion) in the second quarter of 2025, according to the latest figures released by the Belgian Structured Investment Products Association. This reflected sales volume that increased by 28% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), while it was up by 140% compared to the exceptionally low Q2 2024, when turnover stood at €365m.

Also in Belgium, Argenta, one of the top five local banks, has returned to the country’s public offering market by distributing a five-year capital protection product tracking the Euro Stoxx 50 ESG Price Index. 

SRP also looked at some of the most traded actively managed certificates (AMCs) on the SIX Swiss Exchange during August, as well as two private placements linked to the blue economy and carbon assets.

Across the Pacific Ocean, Hong Kong’s indexed universal life products have sparked market buzz that industry participants said they’re eyeing the growing opportunity following the city’s loosening rules since March, accompanied by some investors’ concerns about the familiarity of its mechanism. 

“IUL is still relatively new in the market. Many clients are unfamiliar with its mechanism, particularly around cost structures, participation rates, and cap rates,” Henry Shin, CEO at wealth manager Wrise Prestige in Hong Kong, said. “Education and transparency will be key as the market matures.”

Last but not least, our newly-released index report on strategy and custom indices featured interviews with Société Générale where Sandrine Ungari, managing director, global head of QIS structuring, spoke about the adoption and evolution of systematic investing (QIS) strategies; Phillip Brzenk, global head of multi-asset indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices, on developing systematic, rules-based indices; Guillaume Flinois, FTSE Russell’s head of engineered products and Indices, who discussed eyeing the US indexed annuity market; and Neil McAllister, head of derivatives products Americas at Morningstar Indexes, who also highlighted the firm’s goal in the US the fixed index annuity space.

Image: Maingraph/Adobe Stock

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