Vontobel Financial Products has joined the Austria certificate association (Zertifikate Forum Austria - ZFA) as it continues to expand beyond its core markets. The Swiss private bank joined the ZFA on January 1.
"Austria is an important market for us. It is the natural extension of our Swiss and German focus markets," said Wolfgang Gerhardt (pictured), head of financial products Germany and member of the board at Bank Vontobel Europe AG. According to Gerhardt, the products and client structure in Austria are similar to the German market and Vontobel wants to be seen as a long-term partner. "We want to take responsibility for the future development of our industry [as well as] to act in a productive and sustainable way," said Gerhardt. "We have joined the ZFA in order to support the Austrian structured product market and show strong commitment to our Austrian clients."
Vontobel's ZFA membership is accompanied with strong ambitions in the Austrian market. "We do not only want to work in an industry [as] we have a strong aspiration to shape the industry," said Gerhardt. "Nowadays, there are many issues in our industry which have to be solved with a common approach and through an industry-wide consensus instead of going alone as a single bank."
Vontobel is a leading European provider with strong links to other European and national trade bodies such as the European structured investment products association (Eusipa), the German certificates association (Deutscher Derivate Verband -DDV) and the Swiss structured products association (SSPA). "The bank has the capacity and the competencies to harmonize European-wide efforts concerning regulation, transparency, product innovation and investor education," said Gerhardt.
Vontobel Financial Products will be the legal entity issuing structured products in Austria while the distribution will fall under Bank Vontobel Europe's Frankfurt branch with the market making to be done by Bank Vontobel in Zurich.
Vontobel's new membership at the ZFA was announced on the back of two recent casualties in the domestic retail structured products market including Österreichischen Volksbanken, one of the founding members of the ZFA, and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which have left the association, due to their withdrawal from the structured certificate market. Currently the Austrian certificates body is comprised of four full members including Raiffeisen Centrobank, Erste Bank, Unicredit Bank Austria and Vontobel.
The Swiss bank marketed almost 170,000 products among Austrian/German investors and had a market share of 8% (€264m) in 2015.
"We are excited about the new member especially because Vontobel is a strong European player, and one of the leading issuers in Switzerland, Germany as well as in the Nordic markets," said Heike Arbter, chairwoman of the ZFA. "The willingness of Vontobel, to engage actively in the association's responsibilities is for us a confirmation of the strength of the Austrian market."
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