Asia banks spearhead structured product activity while European banks add new staff in the region

Etienne Grisey, managing director and head of global equities structuring, Apac, at BNP Paribas, has been appointed co-head of EQD structuring, Americas, in New York.

The move comes 12 months after Grisey’s latest promotion. He relocated to Singapore from Hong Kong SAR in July 2022 to take on his previous 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.

SRP has learned that Frederic Cosmao will replace Grisey as head of equity structuring, Apac, based in Tokyo. Cosmao has held different senior roles in equity derivatives and QIS structuring across the region, including leading the team in Japan successfully for the past five years.

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) has appointed Jan Krüger as its new head of capital markets for the Asia-Pacific region in the Singapore Branch.

Krüger, previously head of the equity markets department and, amongst others, responsible for LBBW's certificates business will head the newly established financial markets Apac department from 1 September.

Poland’s Bank Millennium has launched Globalny Market III in the country. The two-year, capital-protected structured deposit is linked to the share of Amazon and features the shark fin payoff. At maturity, it offers the greater of 5.1% coupon or 60% participation in the rise of the share, capped at 29.99%. However, if at any time during the investment period the share reaches or exceeds 150% of its initial level, the return is fixed at 5.1%.

Millennium first started selling products with this payout profile around one year ago, according to Piotr Jagodziński, structured products dealer, treasury department, at the bank.

South Korea’s Mirae Asset Securities recorded a drop in net income to KRW140.9 billion (US$110m) in the second quarter of 2023, down 47% compared to the prior-year quarter, according to the Korean securities house’s latest earnings report. Net operating revenue dropped by 11% to KRW367.3 billion in Q2 23 year-on-year (YoY).

Equity-linked securities (ELS) and derivative-linked securities (DLS), which are housed under the wealth management segment including equity-linked bonds (ELBs) and derivative-linked bonds (DLBs), saw a 14% increase in their combined revenue at KRW3.1 billion during the quarter. Total assets invested in the ELS and DLS remained unchanged at KRW5.1 trillion.

SRP data shows that from April to June, KB Securities remained the most active issuer in Q2 23, with 502 products – led by ELS – sold at KRW906.7 billion. The volume decreased by 19% compared to the prior-year period when the issuer marketed 500 products at KRW1.12 trillion. 

In neighbouring Hong Kong SAR, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) authorised 47 unlisted structured investment products (SIPs) during the second quarter of 2023, a 19.7% increase compared with the prior-year quarter, according to the financial regulators’ latest quarterly report.

The growth in issuance brought the total number of SIPs to 273 in Q2 23, a rise from 228 a year ago.

The structured investment products approved by the regulator in Q2 23 consisted of ELIs and structured deposits targeted at retail investors in Hong Kong SAR.

According to the SFC report, ELI’s net notional outstanding increased to HK$16.1 billion (US$2.1 billion) by the end of June, up from US$13.3 billion a quarter ago. At the same time, structured deposit issuance gathered HK$644.6m, a slight drop from HK$650.7m.

Thai state-owned bank Krungthai has revisited a Deutsche Bank momentum index for the issuance of structured products tracking proprietary indices developed by investment banks in the past 18 months, which now stands at US$122.7m. 

Traded on 7 June, the structured note linked to the Deutsche Bank Momentum Asset Allocator 5.5% Volatility Control Index sold THB20m (US$570,000). The note has a tenor of 20 months and offers a fixed coupon of 1.5%.

Prior to that, the Thai bank issued two structured notes tracking the index, which collected sales of THB36m and THB46m and were traded on 3 March 2023 and 10 November 2022, respectively. Both notes offered the same fixed coupon and had a very similar tenor.