SRP’s news desk reviews the most read stories from last week.

TP ICAP rolled out an electronic alternative trading system (ATS) in the US, a first for the structured notes market.

The London-headquartered liquidity and data solutions provider’s Fusion Structured Products Trading Systems enhances the secondary market by introducing an electronic trading environment, streamlining operations for the industry.

The US secondary market for structured notes is largely bilateral - Robert Romano, TP ICAP

In an exclusive interview with SRP, TP ICAP’s head of structured products Americas, private wealth networks, Robert Romano, said the company is seeking to replicate the regulated electronic market ecosystem that already exists in corporate bonds by leveraging its existing SEC-regulated ATS infrastructure, as well as its regulatory and operational expertise, to support the new venue.

“The US secondary market for structured notes is largely bilateral, with investors typically required to return to the original issuer or distributor to sell their holdings, often through one-on-one communication […] it is highly fragmented,” Romano told SRP

Leonteq ended 2025 with renewed strength in structured products, despite a challenging year marked by low fee income and a negative trading result. The Swiss structured products provider reported a 49% year-on-year (YoY) increase in issuance, with 33% of all new products initiated via Lynqs, its digital click & trade platform.

More market news came from Italy, where 21Shares listed 27 exchange-traded products (ETPs) on Borsa Italiana’s ETFPlus market with a further three ETPs from CoinShares also listed on the exchange. In Spain, Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME) reported turnover for structured products traded in January, at €22.7m, fell 14% YoY. Meanwhile, BNP Paribas became the latest issuer to use Connexor, BME’s issuance and listing tool for structured products. Since 2024, more than 4,500 structured products have been issued on BME using Connexor.

Products

Natixis made its first appearance in the SRP Czech Republic database in almost nine years. The French bank collaborated with Česká Spořitelna for a one-year reverse convertible tied to the share of Siemens that offers fixed income of 9.50% pa. It was one of 50 structured products that struck in the Czech market during the fourth quarter of 2025. Combined, they collected an estimated CZK2.4 billion (US$115m).

In our view, AI remains one of the most structural growth themes of this decade - Marcel Pronk, VLK

Dutch wealth manager Van Lanschot Kempen (VLK) issued a five-year capped participation bond linked to an equally weighted basket comprising 14 companies active in various segments of the artificial intelligence (AI) value chain whilst benefiting from the growth and application of AI technology.

“In our view, AI remains one of the most structural growth themes of this decade,” VLK’s Marcel Pronk told SRP.

VLK also teamed up with fellow Dutch asset manager Wilgenhaege for the launch of a three-year Phoenix autocall linked to the shares of Ayden, Euronext and NN Group.

In Switzerland, Julius Baer is reshaping how active strategies are structured and delivered, using actively managed certificates (AMCs) as a flexible, operationally efficient bridge between structured products and discretionary mandates. Speaking with SRP, Daniel Espineira, the bank’s head of structured products institutional sales, outlined how AMCs allow strategies to be launched quickly, implemented like a security and managed without the constraints of a fund structure.

Over in the US, Raymond James reported US$8.1 billion in structured products sales in 2025 – up 45% YoY, including US$7.9 billion in structured notes and US$259m in market-linked certificates of deposits.

The US indexed annuity market posted US$208 billion in sales for 2025, up 9.1% from the previous record level, according to Limra’s US Individual Annuity Sales Survey, which represents 92% of the US annuity market.

Investors in Asia (ex-China) favoured equities in 2025, with worst-of-stocks structures accounting for the largest share at 36%, driven by sales in Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan. Meanwhile, in Thailand, sales of structured notes reached THB42.5 billion (US$1.4 billion) in Q4 2025, an increase of 40% YoY, boosted by demand for single-stock and benchmark index-linked notes.

People, regulation and more…

Remaining in Asia, Richard Smerin, Morgan Stanley’s head of equity derivatives for the region, is parting ways with the US bank after 16 years to join Citadel Securities. Smerin will join the US market maker as head of structured products based in Hong Kong SAR.

Also in Hong Kong, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) introduced a set of trading initiatives aimed at strengthening liquidity and product diversity in Hong Kong’s digital asset ecosystem, including a high-level framework for leveraged virtual asset products targeted at professional investors.

The SFC also took disciplinary action against Kylin International (HK) after it identified extensive failures in fund management, governance and client-facing processes.  

Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is set to relax the eligibility requirements for securities firms to apply for high-asset business and sales targets for structured notes issued by securities firms’ overseas subsidiaries in an effort to expand the client base.

In Europe, the European Banking Authority (EBA) launched a consultation on simplifying the EU’s credit risk framework, part of a broader effort to rationalise the Single Rulebook and enhance efficiency across European banking supervision while the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) examined the extent to which AI is being adopted within the French financial sector and the associated operational and regulatory considerations. 

Finally, Patrick Oberhaensli, CEO and founder of Evolids Finance LLC, took a detailed look at the lesser-known risk measure Fugit, which is used in the analysis of structured products that can terminate before their stated maturity. This aptly named “time is flying” metric captures the product’s expected remaining life.

The analysis focused on the Eurostoxx 50 index as the underlying of an autocall barrier reverse convertible.

Image: Stokkete/Adobe Stock

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