ABN Amro has taken the opportunity provided by its recent announcement of the appointment of InCapital's Brian Jones and Charlie O'Flaherty at the head of its US structured products business to unveil its US structured retail products brand: the S-Notes family of multiple-underlying and multiple-risk-profile products is being sold through the broker-dealer and wealth management communities with a web site open to retail investors.
The bank, which is already a leading issuer of SEC-approved products, said it has made a strategic decision to ramp up its business in the US market as a key part of its quest to become number one globally in structured retail products.
S-Notes can be linked to asset classes such as the S&P 500 Index, commodity indices, US Treasuries, or ADRs, for example, and come in three risk profiles: principal-protected notes, (income-based) higher yield notes and (leveraged) out-performance notes. Products are likely to be issued weekly, and customised offerings are possible for higher ticket business.
Head of private investor products, Americas, Gijs Kaars Sijpesteijn, said the products have been branded in order to bring greater awareness of ABN Amro's structured retail products to the broker-dealer market and to retail investors themselves.
Sijpesteijn described the bank's US advertising strategy for S-Notes as a ˜push-pull" strategy with a push out towards the broker dealer and wealth management community and an ultimate pull to the retail client, which will be reached by print and electronic media. The bank's web site, us.abnamromarkets.com is open to retail investors.
Sijpesteijn said the bank is happy to consider white labelling products to other providers, though branded products are its immediate focus.
