It’s been a busy week in the structured product world, and we hear from markets which have recently been fairly quiet, including Austria, Australia and Japan.

Two of the main European banks active in structured products have also been active on the recruitment front.

BNP Paribas has poached a senior structurer from rival Société Générale to bolster equity derivatives distribution structuring for Asia ex-Japan. Mickael Seve has joined BNP Paribas Corporate and Institutional Banking as director, Asia ex-Japan head of equity derivatives distribution structuring, global markets.

In this newly-created role, Seve reports to Etienne Grisey, managing director, Apac head of global equities structuring at the bank, effective from 1 September, according to sources. Grisey relocated to Singapore in July from Hong Kong SAR to take on his current role, which sits under the global equities division along with the global macro and the global credit units following the new global markets business structure launched earlier this year. Prior to that, he served as Apac head of EQD structuring at BNP Paribas.

We’ve added these two powerhouses due to their global reach across multiple asset classes - Ben Streater, Stropro 

Frédéric Despagne has expanded his portfolio of responsibilities after a promotion that puts him in charge of at Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking’s (SGCIB) equity derivatives and structured products across Europe, including the UK. As European head of equity derivatives, QIS and investment solutions - cross asset, he will work on increasing product transversality between equity derivatives, fixed income & currencies and investment solutions across businesses and regions. The French bank is seeking to build upon two years of very fast growth on investment solutions in Europe and leverage its equity trading capacities to accelerate growth with hedge funds, pensions funds and asset managers.

It’s also result season in Asia Pacific. Two leading distributors in Japan have delivered robust results on the back of structured notes activity from April to June.

Tokai Tokyo Securities posted JPY803m (US$5.6m) net profit in Q1 FY22 ended in June 2022, down 34.5% year-on-year (YoY), despite stable operating revenues at JPY15.8 billion. The profit represented a record-low level since Q2 FY20 ended in September 2021, according to the firm's Q2 FY22 earnings report. The total sales volume of foreign bonds and structured bonds reached a new peak in Q1 FY23 in two years as it was 29% higher reaching JPY83.8 billion YoY.

Net operating revenues at the investment banking arm of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group rose 62% to JPY12.4 billion in Q1 FY22 ended in June 2022 YoY while ordinary profit rebounded to JPY12.5 billion from a loss of JPY13.2 billion as a result of transactions with a US customer a year ago, according to the firm's Q2 FY22 earnings report.

Daiwa Securities Group has posted a JPY11.8 billion (US$81.7m) profit in Q1 FY22 ended in June 2022, down 49.6.5% year-on-year (YoY). Net operating revenues dropped 16.3% to JPY106.1 billion 'due to deterioration of the market environment', according to the firm's Q2 FY22 earnings report.

The company’s retail division saw operating revenues and ordinary income falling due to a decrease in revenues from customer order flow but maintained ordinary income of JPY6.2 billion 'led by steady progress in shifting to wealth management business model and cost reduction'.

In Austria, the outstanding volume for interest-linked products increased for the first time in years. Some €2 billion was invested in structured interest rate products by Austrian investors at the end of July 2022 – up €129.2m, or 6.8%, compared to the previous month (June 2022: €1.9 billion). The increase in open interest in interest rate products, the first rise in years, led to a 4.8% increase in the total market volume for certificates, according to latest figures from the Austrian certificate association (Zertifikate Forum Austria or ZFA).

The Vienna Stock Exchange (VSE) last week announced that Optiver has joined the exchange as a new trading member. Optiver will provide liquidity across listed derivatives, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other structured products in pan-European shares on the VSE.

Australian structured products platform Stropro has announced the addition of BNP Paribas (S&P: A+) and Natixis (S&P: A+) to its platform issuer panel.

‘We’ve added these two powerhouses due to their global reach across multiple asset classes,’ said Ben Streater, Stropro’s chief investment officer (CIO). ‘Both are award winning issuers of structured investments with strengths in 100% issuer protected income strategies, credit and equity linked products as well as their own institutional grade proprietary index solutions.’

The addition of two more major global banks will increase the platform’s product capabilities further, particularly with more principal protected offerings.

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