The Swiss association gets a new president, while the former managing director of the German counterpart joins Dekabank.
Georg von Wattenwyl has been elected as the SSPA’s new president at the association’s delegate meeting on 28 September, replacing Markus Pfister who had been in the role since 2019.
Previously, Von Wattenwyl was a member of the SSPA board for 10 years until 2019, including five years as president. He is the global head of structured solutions financial solutions at Vontobel. He has returned to Switzerland after spending four years in Singapore concentrating on his tasks and functions for Vontobel in Asia and as president of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Singapore since 2019. Von Wattenwyl started at Vontobel in 1998 as a market maker in derivatives before becoming the company’s global head of financial products, advisory and distribution in 2007. He started his career at Credit Suisse as a vice-president fixed income derivatives in 1993.
Lars Brandau, managing director at the German Derivatives Association (Deutscher Derivate Verband, DDV) has joined Deka Private Banking and Wealth Management as a managing director.
Brandau, who is a founder of the DDV and has been a member of the board of directors since the DDV was established in 2008, also represented the German association in the working groups of the European umbrella association, Eusipa.
Prior to joining DDV, his career included a number of senior roles at the news broadcaster N-TV, among others the position of main news anchor, including the Telebörse stock market information service for a period of three years.
From an exposure standpoint, there's definitely a huge home bias. Who doesn't love a Canadian bank? - Jerome Cloutier, BMO
The 3rd edition of the survey ‘Staying the Course’ by Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), which features 138 participants from 30 insurance companies in the US with over US$1.1 trillion in variable annuity net assets, has unveiled that Rila growth is the most noticeable trend in the US annuities market.
In line with yearly findings, structured/buffered solutions will be the top priority investment strategy, according to respondents. More than two-thirds of participants will focus on registered index-linked annuities (Rila) from a product manufacturing standpoint.
Over the next one to three years, 44% of participants find the continued rise of Rila the most significant trend, followed by income rates for living benefit guarantees (16%), pick-up of registered index annuity (RIA) adoption (13%) and increase of in-plan annuity adoption (11%).
In Mexico, interest rate hikes have contributed to “a sweet story” for principal-protected products over the past two years, particularly for participation products due to their funding component, according to Valentin Gratteau (pictured), investment solutions sales US & Latam, at BBVA.
The reference rate, which was set at 11.25% pa. by the central bank in August, is “quite high”, and has made treasury bonds and structured products “much more attractive”.
Despite a slowdown around autocallable notes this structure continues to drive most of the trading volume and investors have eased their concern over a banking crisis after the second quarter.
“Another factor is low volatility environments,” said Gratteau. “When there was some pickup in volatility, we saw investors take [advantage] of it and start to sell volatility mostly on indexes and single stocks.”
According to Gratteau, investors in Mexico have become “much more opportunistic” by spotting the right moments to sell volatility over the last few years. Some of them have switched the capital to US dollars from Mexican peso as the latter has staged a robust comeback and become a leading Latam currency since 2022.
Over in Canada, the share of structured products will continue growing as the increase in interest rates will favour products with capital protection. This will address the investment needs of investors with a traditional risk-averse profile, according to two Canadian bankers at the SRP Americas 2023 Conference held in Chicago on 27 September.
Despite the dominance of Solactive’s indices in the Canadian market, Desjardins remains focused on its preference for structured notes tracking share baskets, which are considered simple and secure, according to Benoit Bélanger, director, equity derivatives & structured products at Desjardins.
SRP data shows that Solactive’s indices account for four out of the 10 most used underlying assets by issuance – including the top pick - for structured products issued from 2022, which comprise structured notes and market-linked guaranteed investment certificates (GICs).
“From an exposure standpoint, there's definitely a huge home bias. Who doesn't love a Canadian bank?” said Jerome Cloutier, managing director & co-head global sales, global markets at BMO. “It would be great if we could actually go and offer a lot more US and global products.”
Image: Rawf8/Adobe Stock.