SRP’s news desk reviews the most read stories in the past week.
Throughout the week, we continued our coverage of SRP Americas 2026, including interviews with award winners and panel discussions.
Our whole mindset is around outcomes, whether it's protection, participation, using leverage or income-generating strategies - Jeff Schwarte, SimplyfyETFs
Thomas Laborderie, vice president at HSBC’s US structured products sales desk, was the recipient of the Rising Star award. The UK bank, which was also recognised as Best House, CDs, has benefited from strong demand for yield-enhancement solutions and is expanding its capabilities in equity derivatives and quantitative strategies, while Laborderie stressed that trust, service and adaptability remain key differentiators in a relationship-driven business.
One of the panels highlighted that autocallable ETFs are gaining traction by offering broader accessibility, liquidity and portfolio integration, shifting from customised defined outcomes to standardised benchmark exposures.
“Our whole mindset is around outcomes, whether it's protection, participation, using leverage or income-generating strategies,” Jeff Schwarte, chief equity strategist at SimplifyETFs said.
The evolution of structured ETFs is moving beyond replicating structured notes to building systematic, continuously tradable payoff strategies within ETF wrappers. Industry participants at the panel argued that ETFs and structured notes are increasingly complementary rather than competitive, with ETFs offering scalability and operational efficiency while notes retain advantages in bespoke structuring.
Insurance-linked structured products are becoming stronger competitors to traditional structured notes, particularly in retirement planning. Panellists emphasised that insurance products offer embedded guarantees, lifetime income features and protection benefits that notes cannot replicate, while also highlighting the growing role of custom indices, governance standards and active strategies in product design.
A fireside chat examined various common assumptions surrounding crypto structured products, arguing that improvements in liquidity, custody infrastructure and derivatives markets are making digital assets more accessible for structured product strategies.
Market review
In the UK, structured product sales reached their highest monthly level in two years, with volumes rising strongly both year-on-year and compared with June. It’s notable that Scotiabank's entry into the European structured products market through a collaboration with IDAD, marking the Canadian bank's first issuance in Europe.
Italy's certificates market maintained its growth momentum in Q2 2026, with listed products, new launches and trading activity all increasing. Growth was driven largely by leverage products, while the overall expansion of listings across SeDeX, Cert-X and Vorvel highlighted the continued depth and maturity of the Italian structured products market.
Structured product sales in Central and Eastern Europe reached their highest quarterly level since 2017, supported primarily by strong activity in Poland and Hungary. The market collected an estimated US$1.2 billion during Q2 2026, while demand for products linked to single equity indices increased significantly.
European structured product sales rose to US$95.9 billion in Q2 2026, driven by growing demand for yield-enhancement strategies, while overall issuance remained broadly stable. The report highlighted a trend towards shorter product maturities, especially for products with terms below one year which recorded the strongest rise.
Regulation and products
The US Securities and Exchange Commission updated guidance for equity-linked structured notes, modernising a framework that had stayed largely unchanged since the 1996 Morgan Stanley no-action letter. The development enables issuers to use abbreviated disclosure for notes referencing individual securities, certain indices, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded products (ETPs).
The Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines introduced a formal regulatory framework governing the issuance and trading of structured warrants, bringing in a new investment choice to the investors in the country. The rules establish issuance, disclosure and trading requirements while imposing safeguards such as limits on warrant issuance relative to a company's outstanding shares, creating a foundation for market development.
The European Banking Authority called for greater clarity on how tokenised financial instruments should be regulated as the line between traditional securities and crypto-assets becomes increasingly blurred. Regulators argued that tokenisation should not alter the existing regulatory treatment of financial instruments and warned that uncertainty around classification could create challenges with new investment products coming to the market.
SRP reviewed a range of structured products across the world with strike dates between 27 September and 3 October this year, including a French structured note linked to MerQube's power generation and electrification index and a Belgian product referencing a technology-focused index from Deutsche Bank.
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