From Europe’s first autocallable ETF launch by Calamos to iCapital’s partnership with Anthropic to SocGen’s silver-linked warrant listing in Hong Kong, we look at last week's most read news on SRP.

The first autocallable exchange-traded fund in Europe has gone live on Deutsche Börse’s Xetra platform.

The Calamos Autocallable Income Ucits ETF – which is built on the Calamos Autocallable Income ETF listed on the New York Stock Exchange since last June – was also listed on the London Stock Exchange last week. It’s also set to be listed on the Six Swiss Exchange on 20 May.

The launch comes as global investors look to embrace structured ETFs as alternative ways to harvest volatility and secure predictable payouts. And market participants broadly, from Janus Henderson Investors to Schroders, agree that this growth reflects both cyclical and structural forces. Active management, index design and derivatives innovation are also converging to blur the line between ETFs and structured products, industry watchers say.

Such a trend also brought attention to BlackRock: The world’s largest asset manager has tapped Tom Garland to take a newly created role as head of derivative ETF product structuring & strategy. Within the iShares structuring and solutions team, the director will have end-to-end responsibility for defining, building and scaling the iShares derivatives-based ETF business in Europe.

Elsewhere in Europe, IG Bank has joined GenTwo’s AMC Creator platform as an execution partner, deepening a partnership focused on expanding structured product creation capabilities for asset managers and financial professionals.

In the Czech Republic, sales of publicly offered structured products rose 12% year-on-year to an estimated CZK2.2 billion (US$104m)

In the Czech Republic, sales of publicly offered structured products rose 12% year-on-year to an estimated CZK2.2 billion (US$104m) during the first quarter of the year, SRP data shows. It fell by 14% on a quarterly basis.

We also look at some of the most traded actively managed certificates (AMCs) on the SIX Swiss Exchange during March and April as well as brand-new offerings from Strivo and Intermonte, plus a selection of private placements linked to non-tradable underlyings.

UK-based tokenisation infrastructure provider Ctrl Alt has launched what it describes as the first tokenised structured product on the Solana blockchain, marking a new step in the convergence of traditional structured finance and on-chain capital markets.

In the US, Goldman Sachs appointed Michael Voris as Americas head of equity derivatives within its investment grade capital markets and derivatives group, according to an internal memo. Voris, who joined the bank in 2010 and leads the establishment of private & alternatives capital markets (PACM), will focus on advancing the equity derivatives franchise and driving commercial priorities to expand this business line at Goldman. Akila Raman will become global head of PACM group.

iCapital is expanding its artificial intelligence strategy through a new partnership with Anthropic, as the global investment technology platform looks to deepen AI integration across its structured investments, alternatives and annuities business.

Pivoting to Asia: Société Générale has broadened its listed structured product offerings in Hong Kong SAR, with the rollout of the market’s first silver-linked derivative warrants. The French bank also listed its own first batch of gold-linked derivative warrants in March, making it the second listed structured product issuer tapping into the physical-settled safe haven’s underlying exposure following its cross-town rival BNP Paribas’ debut in 2017.

Taiwan’s Mega Financial Holding Company has built out a manufactured business line of structured notes on local stock exposures as part of an effort to lure wealthy investors in the region’s structured products boom.

The Taipei-based firm has launched self-issued fixed-coupon notes and leveraged structured notes tracking exchange-traded funds or high-dividend individual stocks on local companies, with its banking and securities subsidiaries serving as distribution channels.

In Korea, RiskX, a Seoul-based fintech startup, is gearing up to launch a structured product pre-request-for-quotation platform in a bid to advance digitalisation in retail investors’ decision-making. Set to roll out in May, the pre-RFQ platform will allow retail investors to screen product design details, risk analysis, and pricing across multiple securities houses.

The launch coincides with the country’s regulator proposing to overhaul the consumer protection framework following the fallout from equity-linked securities (ELS) mis-selling in 2024.

Image: Maximusdn/Adobe Stock

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