S-Pankki has acquired LähiTapiola Bank in a further move to consolidate its structured products offering following the acquisition of FIM Pankki, another Finnish provider of structured products, last summer.
The new S- Pankki has now a client base of over 2.7m customers, and the bank has plans to use the increased distribution channel to leverage its structured products offering.
Jani Kempas, head of alternative investments at FIM, told SRP that the bank is only offering structured deposits through its private banking network.
“Investment deposits are meant for the [private banking] investor base and possibly in the future other capital-protected investment products will be made available for the whole customer base of the new S-Bank,” he said.
“Other structured products including non-capital-protected structures continue to be offered under the FIM brand.”
Kempas said that that structuring and product development is currently centralised at FIM.
SRP data shows that there are altogether 94 products in the Finnish database from S- Pankki, LähiTapiola and FIM since they started.
S-Bank and LähiTapiola have been small players in the Finnish structured products market and they have offered mostly deposits in the past. FIM marketed 12 products last year and it has specialised in non-capital-protected products in recent years.
“FIM is a small and flexible player which now has a big bank-like distribution channel,” added Kempas. “FIM is known in Finland as an experienced asset manager and will leverage this experience in the structured investment products space.”
Kempas said that the future of structured products is positive in Finland taking into account the low interest-rate environment.
“Returns paid by [saving/deposit] accounts do not necessarily overcome inflation,” he said. “Capital-protected products and deposits are a tempting opportunity for cautious investors.”
S-Pankki is marketing S-Sijoitustalletus 1/2014 while FIM is pitching its Eurooppa 2019 II.