SRP weekly: hedging, tail-risk protection and pricing

Goldman Sachs is expanding its structured products hedging business in the US. This will allow it to bolster its relationships across products including structured notes, ETFs as well as concentrated equity positions, all while investing in pricing and risk technology.

Additionally, UBS is developing its Americas structured products offering following the integration of Credit Suisse. The bank has recently received industry awards recognizing its volatility-control indices, a Brazilian credit-linked note, and thematic US notes.

Products and market reviews

A €200m Goldman Sachs-backed basket autocall in France has been marketed by Swisslife Banque Privée. In Vienna, Marex has listed a US worst-of ETF-linked note. Both of these can be seen in SRP’s recent product wrap.

September performance and tail-risk protection is examined in SRP’s funds of structured products review across the Netherlands, UK, Ireland and Luxembourg. The Dutch Market Stability Fund gained 1.14% in September. This takes its year-to-date return to 10.68%.

Moving to the UK, September’s market review recorded sales of £135m across 83 publicly offered products. This is down 23% from August. Autocall payoffs accounted for roughly 93% of sales volumes.

Sales of structured products reached US$1.20 billion in Q2 2026 across Central and Eastern Europe. This reflects the highest quarterly level since 2017 according to SRP’s regional review. Poland and Hungary drove most of the activity.

Market

Goldman Sachs has invested in pricing and execution capabilities to support risk management across products, scaling up its role as a hedge provider.

The Engle volatility-control index series has been brought together by UBS’s Americas expansion. This includes an AI-themed catapult note for US wealth clients and an issuer-callable credit-linked note for the Brazilian market, both of which were recognised at industry awards.

People

Kunal Malhotra has joined Vega Capital Partners as managing director, head of commercial strategy and partnerships. Kunal previously worked as a structured products executive at UBS and as an ETP distribution executive. At Vega, he will oversee growth initiatives for VegaShares’ derivatives-focused ETF business.

SRP’s latest people roundup touches on senior appointments at Halo Investing, Maverix, Solactive and MSCI, alongside changes at Standard Chartered and MUFG. Jay Modi has joined Halo as product head of structured products issuance and lifecycle management.

Regulation

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has retained the complex classification for buffer and defined outcomes products as part of a revision of its fund guidance, additionally introducing a value-at-risk test for non-complex status and allowing covered call funds to net options positions.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has retained structured products and registered index-linked annuities among investments identified under Reg BI in its fiscal 2027 examination priorities. It gave more explicit attention to zero-days-to-expiration options and single-stock ETFs.

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