BNP Paribas has joined the Swiss Structured Products Association (SSPA) as a new active member becoming the latest foreign market player to join the association's ranks. The French bank became active in the Swiss retail structured products market following its acquisition of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Switzerland.
BNPP has been present in Switzerland since 1872 and has offices in Geneva, Zurich, Basel and Lugano, but has not been an active player in the structured products market. Since 2011, the bank has issued only one product in Switzerland (Alti-Max90, an open-ended CPPI strategy sold as a structured certificate), according to SRP data.
Since it became a market maker, BNPP has brought more than 300 products to market of which 70 are still live products. Most of these products are tranche-based (269 structures), but the French bank has also marketed 35 open-ended products and 34 leverage structures on a mini long/short certificate format.
"In November 2014, BNP Paribas SA, through its subsidiaries, assumed market making activities for approximately 1,200 listed structured products and started the issuance of listed structured products," said Florian Stasch, head of sales and marketing exchange traded solutions at BNP Paribas Switzerland. "Our SSPA membership underlines our long-term commitment for the Swiss structured products market as well as for the Swiss financial centre."
Immediately after the transfer of market making responsibilities to BNPP, the French bank appointed Yves In-Albon, former vice-president, structured derivatives sales, Switzerland at RBS, as director, portfolio solutions sales, Switzerland, reporting to Omar Alami, head of distribution sales (France-Monaco-Switzerland-Luxembourg), who, in turn, reports to Jean Eric Pacini, head of structured products sales, equities and derivatives at BNP Paribas in London.
The SSPA represents the interests of structured products manufacturers and distributors active in Switzerland, which together account for more than 95% of the market volume for structured products in the country: members include Barclays, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Commerzbank, Goldman Sachs International, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Bank Julius Bär, Leonteq Securities, Notenstein Private Bank, Royal Bank of Canada - Capital Markets, Société Générale, UBS, Bank Vontobel and Zürcher Kantonalbank as active members as well as Derivative Partners Group, Global Financial Products, Picard Angst Investment Solutions, and Six Structured Products Exchange.
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