Products linked to a single equity index captured 98% market share in the quarter.
An estimated €142m (US$168m) was collected from 29 publicly offered structured products that struck during the fourth quarter of 2025.
Sales decreased by 12% compared to the previous quarter; year-on-year (YoY) volumes were down by five percent (Q4 2024: €149m).
The number of issued products fell by two, both quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) and YoY.
Slovakia: sales & issuance by quarter
Source: SRP
Sales for full year 2025 reached €595m – down 14% compared to the previous year. Issuance increased from 95 products in 2024 to 115 products this time around.
Slovakia: sales & issuance by year
Source: SRP
Three products with strike dates in the quarter were listed on an exchange. Of these, Premium ESG expresný certifikát 10 and Premium ESG zaistený certifikát 18, which were issued via Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), were available for trading in both Stuttgart and Vienna while BNP Paribas issued IC BNP Digital Pharma 25-30 was listed in Luxembourg for an issued amount of €1.9m.
Seventeen products that sold an estimated €140m at inception matured during the quarter.
In addition, 23 products – mostly ‘express plus’ certificates on single names from Unicredit – expired early in the period with an average annualised return of 11%. These included two HVB EUR Express Plus Certificates on the shares of Infineon and Hugo Boss, respectively, which both expired after six months, returning 108.24% and 106.33%.
Erste Group Bank’s Fix Coupon Express SX7E 23-26 also autocalled at its first opportunity, providing investors with 116% of capital (7.66% pa).
Distributors
Six different distributors where active in the quarter, up one from both Q3 2025 and the prior year period.
Slovakia Q4 2025: distributors – market share by sales volume
Source: SRP
VÚB, which is part of the Intesa Sanpaolo group, was once again the number one distributor, claiming almost 85% of the Slovak market in the quarter (Q3 2025: 74%; Q4 2024: 81%). The bank marketed three of its customary deposits, including Prémiový vklad XXXVI, a one-year product that fixed income of 1.70% pa. In addition, a conditional coupon of 1.1% pa is paid if the underlying Eurostoxx 50 index closes at or above its initial level at maturity.
Other distributors active in the quarter included Unicredit, ČSOB, Slovenská sporiteľňa and Cyrrus. The latter collaborated with BNP Paribas for the launch of its first lookback certificate in Slovakia.
The independent investment house built this certificate with BNP Paribas at a time when options for downside protection were extremely cheap, “the perfect moment to create a product that turns market fear into yield,” according to Miroslav Dobsovic, country manager at Cyrrus Slovakia.
Issuers
The number of issuer groups active in the quarter was five (Q3 2025: six; Q4 2024: six).
Slovakia: issuer group by quarter – market share by sales volume
Source: SRP
The top two issuer groups – Intesa Sanpaolo and RBI – claimed more than 90% of the Slovak market.
Unicredit held four percent market share while KBC and BNP Paribas captured 2.8% and 1.9%, respectively.
Slovakia: issuer group by year – market share by sales volume
Source: SRP
Intesa Sanpaolo was also the main issuer group for full year 2025, achieving 79% market share (2024: 70%) ahead of Erste Group Bank (six percent vs one percent in 2024) and RBI (five percent vs four percent).
Goldman, KBC, Unicredit and BNP Paribas all manufactured products in 2025 with Société Générale, which claimed four percent market share in 2024, the only notable absentee.
Asset class, underlyings
Products linked to a single equity index increased their market share from 59% in Q3 2025 to 98% this time around; YoY their market share was up by a significant 89percentage points.
In total 11 products were tied to a single index. They were linked to the MSCI World Selection 5% Decrement Index (four products); Eurostoxx 50 (three); and Stoxx Global Select Dividend 100, MSCI World Top ESG Select 4.5% Decrement Index, Euronext Transatlantic Pharmaceuticals Fixed Basket Decrement 5% Index and MSCI World Climate Change Top ESG Select 4.5% Decrement Index (one each).
Slovakia: asset class by quarter – market share by sales volume
Source: SRP
The market share for products linked to a single stock fell from 13% in Q3 to one percent in the quarter under review (Q4 2024: 0.3%). The products, which were all from Unicredit, included five express plus certificates linked to Infineon while the shares of BMW and BASF (three products), ASML and Adidas (two each) were also used more than once.
Cyrrus’ Best Entry Express USD 10/2025 was the sole product linked to a basket of equity indices. The six-year structure, which collected US$1m during subscription, offered access to the Eurostoxx 50, S&P 500 and Swiss Market Index.
There were no products linked to FX rates in the quarter, as opposed to previous quarters when they claimed a large chunk of market share (Q3 2025: 25%; Q4 2024: 87%).
Slovakia: asset class by year – market share by sales volume
Source: SRP
Despite their absence in the fourth quarter, products linked to FX-rates claimed the highest market share in 2025, capturing 48% of all sales (2024: 71%), ahead single equity indices (42% vs 11% in 2024) and single stocks (eight percent vs 10%).
Payoffs
Digital remained the number one payoff, despite a five-percentage point drop in market share YoY: from 91% in Q4 2024 to 86% in the quarter under review; QoQ their market share increased by 12 percentage points.
Slovakia Q4 2025: payoffs – market share by sales volume
Source: SRP
Other payoffs in the quarter included autocall, capped participation and uncapped participation.
Slovakia: payoffs by year – market share by sales volume
Source: SRP
The digital payoff also dominated in full year 2025 with 82% market share vs 72% the previous year. Market share for barrier reverse convertibles and autocalls remained stable, at seven percent and six percent, respectively.
Capital protection, tenors and wrappers
Ninety-four percent of volume was invested in products that promised to return at least 100% of the nominal investment at maturity with the remaining six percent tied into products putting full capital at risk (Q3 2025: 83% vs 17%; Q4 2024: 95% vs 5.0%).
The highest minimum return on offer was provided by Unicredit’s capital protection certificate on the Stoxx Global Select Dividend 100 Index, which returns at least 105% after five-years.
Slovakia: capital protection by quarter – market share by sales volume
Source: SRP
For full year 2025, the split between capital protection and capital-at-risk was 88% vs 12% (2024: 84% vs 16%).
Slovakia: capital protection by year – market share by sales volume
Source: SRP
The average tenor was 4.11-years, an increase compared to the 3.84-years in the previous quarter and up from the 3.48-years registered for Q4 2024. The shortest duration, at just under one-year, was offered by VÚB’s Eurostoxx 50-linked Prémiový vklad XXXVI, while the longest maturity (six years) was seen in RBI’s Premium ESG expresný certifikát 10, which offered access to the MSCI World Climate Change Top ESG Select 4.5% Decrement Index.
Deposits captured 84% market share – up 10 percentage points from the previous quarter but a decrease of three percentage points YoY. Securities held 16% of the market; there were no structured funds or unit-linked insurance products issued in the quarter.
Outlook
Three products with strike dates in the first quarter of 2026 have been added to the SRP Slovakia database to date.
Some 24 products – including offerings from ČSOB, Erste Group Bank, RBI, Société Générale and VÚB – are due to mature in Q1 2026, providing potential rollover opportunities worth an estimated €155m.
In addition, 34 products have an autocall observation during the period. Of these, there were already early redemptions for Unicredit’s HVB EUR Express Plus ASML Holding (26 Jan: 113.86%/13.94% pa) and RBI’s OMV Express 8 (12 Feb: 138%/8.36% pa).
Main image: Dalpings/Adobe Stock
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