The dust has not settled on recent market correction events, and ambient volatility and uncertainty are at levels rarely seen before. There are few – if any – parts of the market that have been unaffected by the turmoil caused by the global Covid-19 outbreak as we discussed last week.

One area that has seen some strain has been the US fixed index annuities (FIA) market. Though a decline in business is expected, the automatic reaction that is currently taking place originates from carriers, Todd Giesing, director of annuity research at the Secure Retirement Institute, Limra, told SRP. While carriers haven’t pulled pulling all of their products from the portfolios, those that may have features like a bonus or something that just doesn’t work in this type of environment may be affected.

The real estate investment trust (REIT) market has also been brought into focus in recent weeks, with different sectors affected in different ways. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the Dow Jones US Select REIT Index (USD) has fallen by 35%. One of the high-profile casualties of the REIT environment was the UBS ETracs Monthly Pay 2x Leveraged Mortgage REIT ETN Series B, which ended last week with investors losing nearly their entire investment.

Innovation has also come out at a time of widespread uncertainty. In Asia, Hang Seng Indexes has launched the Hang Seng Shanghai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Innovative Drug Select 50 Index, which seeks to capitalise on pharmaceutical innovation. All constituents are listed in Shanghai, Shenzhen or Hong Kong, with the new index calculated and disseminated in real-time at two-second intervals.

Over in Europe, film production Barry Films and Swiss securitisation specialist Gentwo have joined efforts to structure a new actively managed certificate (AMC) which aims at capitalising opportunities around the demand for quality content due to the proliferation of ‘streamers’ such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO Max and Disney +. The AMCs are linked to different projects Barry Film has access to. They are open-ended with a one percent management fee, and a 10% performance fee for the production company.

Even if the world has come to a near standstill, people moves continue.

Natixis has reshuffled its senior management team following the departure of its head of global markets. Luc François, Natixis chief executive officer, Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB), Europe, Middle East & Africa (Emea) - excluding France, and head of global markets, has left the French bank. François has been replaced as global head of markets by Mohamed Kallala, global head of investment banking.

Former UBS Wealth Management senior executive Chi-Won Yoon has joined digital asset financial services and advisory company Diginex as chairman of Asia, based in Hong Kong. In France, Christophe Mianné has joined Cyrus Conseil as a chief executive officer working alongside Meyer Azogui, president of the group, ‘to bring a new dimension to the group and actively participate in the consolidation of the wealth management market’. Cyrus Conseil is one of the largest wealth managers in France and an active provider of structured products with 15 live structures in the France SRP database, according to SRP data.

One of SRP’s most read stories last week was an interview with Guillaume Arnaud, head of quantitative investment solutions at Société Générale, who discussed the practical applications of these strategies in the market and how they reached the retail space.

He told SRP that many investors are keen to get involved in designing their own investment strategies but somehow limited by their execution capabilities. “This is where we see some growth potential, giving those investors access to our backtesting tools, execution capabilities and rebalancing platform for them to implement their IP,” he said.