From Morgan Stanley’s foray into crypto ETF to best-performing products in Europe and people moves in Asia, here’s the latest weekly news roundup brought by SRP News.

The new year kicked off with a new Wall Street player looking to foray into the crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) market: Morgan Stanley Investment Management, the US bank’s asset management arm, has filed initial registration statements with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last week for two new crypto ETF, with one tracking Bitcoin and the other one tracking Solana exposure.

The US banking giant’s move followed its active presence in crypto, including becoming the leading issuer for the structured notes linked to the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) since its debut by Jefferies last July.

North American Company for Life and Health Insurance has added the NYSE GEARS Index to its Secure Horizon fixed index annuity suite, in collaboration with Annexus, an independent insurance retirement product design company in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In Europe, SIX Swiss Exchange’s activity of structured products across its Swiss and Spanish markets accelerated markedly in 2025, with the exchange recording 169,099 structured products listings for the year, up 52.6% from the previous record of 110,870.

SRP reviewed some of the best-performing products across European markets in 2025, such as Hedios’ 12-year medium-term note in France and a Garantum-distributed autocall structure in Sweden.

Wijs & Van Oostveen distributed the AI Turbo Note, a three-year outperformance certificate, in the Netherlands. Issued via Leonteq Securities, the product is linked to the Leonteq Select Artificial Intelligence Equity 15% RC Index, which provides variable exposure to an equally weighted basket of six stocks of companies predicted to play a leading role in the increased usage and future development of artificial intelligence.

Among people moves, Sarah Laconte joined Marex Financial Products as director, structured product & equity derivative sales, in New York. LaConte joined the British no-banking issuer from Natixis, where she led the equity derivatives sales as part of the bank’s effort to rebuild its US desk.

In Asia, Hong Kong-based multi-issuer platform Goldhorse has appointed a new CEO following Edward Liu’s resignation, SRP has learned. Vicky Li, the firm’s current chair, has been the new chief since last November. Liu, who joined the firm in 2020 as managing director, head of investment services, stepped into the deputy CEO role in March 2024 to replace Long Lee before fully transitioning to the CEO role later in that year.

Nomura appointed Avyakt Agarwal as its head of fixed income private bank sales for the Asia ex-Japan region. Based in Singapore, Agarwal joined the Japanese bank from Société Générale where he spent 10 years, most recently leading the French bank’s Singapore and Hong Kong private banking platform, covering fixed income, FX, equities and advisory solutions.

The bank is also expanding its presence in the Middle East, recently having introduced new premises for its international wealth management business in Dubai International Financial Centre.

HSBC Life kicked off the new year with the launch of a new indexed universal life (IUL) plan in Singapore. The index account provides access to a range of indices including the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, S&P Global Diversified Index and S&P US Tactical Multi-Asset Index.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service imposed fines on three domestic banks for improper sales of equity-linked trusts (ELTs) tracking the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI). The financial watchdog fined Kookmin Bank, Hana Bank, and Shinhan Bank over KRW36m (US$24,900), KRW24m, and KRW10m, respectively, saying three banks violated their obligation to record the sale of these trusts.

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