SRP in brief: merry go round

A busy week for new appointments started at Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, which announced the expansion of its global markets team in Asia Pacific with several senior hires, including that of Emile Tran as executive director, equity financial engineering, Asia Pacific in the equity derivatives team, reporting to Arnaud Davoust.

Also in Asia Pacific, John Lau, head of wealth management treasury for Singapore and the region at United Overseas Bank (UOB), has taken up a new role as executive director, head of wealth management advisory and specialists within the banking group’s personal financial services unit. Lau, who has been with UOB for nearly 10 years, reports to Gidon Kessel.

In Europe, Swiss securities firm Maverix appointed Serge Nussbaumer as head of public solutions & marketing. In this position, Nussbaumer will be responsible for public distribution in Switzerland and across Europe.

Nussbaumer’s predecessor, Roman Przibylla is leaving Maverix after four years, as are Maurizio Maniglia, partner and Ivo Sauter, chief operating officer – however, all three will remain connected to the company.

Meanwhile, RBC Capital markets expanded its European flow rates trading team by adding Ian Hale as head of European inflation trading. Hale is based in London and reports to Ed Russell, head of flow rates trading, Europe. In addition, the bank has promoted Callum Maitland who will be taking on a new role as head of structured inflation & cross-currency basis trading. He will continue to be based in London, reporting to Russell.

Over in the US, Ancorata, a manager of structured note separately managed accounts, expanded its distribution team with the appointments of Patrick LeBlanc and Andrew Burghardt as vice presidents of capital markets, responsible for the East and West, respectively.

Banks are increasingly interested in custom indices for better margins compared to traditional benchmarks - Laurence Black, TIS

Also in the US, Innovator ETFs entered the autocallable space with two income ETFs structured via total return swaps hedged by Goldman Sachs and Citi while Global X expanded its thematic range with the launch of the S&P 500 Christian Values ETF (CHRI), which tracks an index excluding companies linked to activities such as abortion, gambling and weapons.

More product news came from China, where Sharkfin, digital and autocall strategies have gained traction via wealth management products as investors continue to tap into the record-breaking rally of precious metals.

The second quarter of 2025 recorded changes around the use of stocks, indices and interest rates in the European structured products market. While equities maintained their dominant role, the quarter was marked by a resurgence in index-linked strategies and resilience in rate-linked structures.

In the Nordics region, some 66% of the total volumes collected in the quarter were invested in products distributed in Finland, compared to 64% in Q1 2025 and 63% in the prior year quarter.

Sweden captured 30% market share while Norway held four percent.

In Italy, Banco BPM collected €214.4m with a digital protection certificate on the Stoxx Global Select Dividend 100 Index while in Adequity distributed a 12-year autocall linked to Carmignac Equity Selection, an actively managed mutual fund which aims to outperform its benchmark, the Solactive GBS CW DM US & Europe EUR Index NTR, over a long-term horizon.

Sales of investment and leverage products in the markets covered by the European Structured Investment Products Association (Eusipa) declined slightly to €43 billion (US$50.4 billion) in the second quarter of 2025 but were still 21% higher than the previous year.

“Turnover is up year-on-year, which is a positive sign […] investors have again seen structured products outperforming other asset classes,” Thomas Wulf, secretary general Eusipa told SRP.

Vidal Vanhoof, counsel, derivatives & structured products at Davis Polk in New York provided an overview on the state of the regulatory landscape, product development and enforcement considerations, as well as conduct standards during the first day of the SRP Americas 2025 Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona on 15 September.

Also at SRP Americas, Laurence Black, founder of The Index Standard (TIS) told the audience that custom indices are used for liquid alternative portfolios and hedging, with US$660 billion in institutional assets.

“Banks are increasingly interested in custom indices for better margins compared to traditional benchmarks,” he said.

_{Image: Tichr/Adobe Stock}

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