A number of structured products will be delisted in Hong Kong SAR this week, Boeing shares continue to put products at risk.

Over 100 listed structured products have been suspended from trading in Hong Kong SAR as the market’s flagship Hang Seng Index (HSI) tumbled to a 14-month low last week.

On 15 January, seven issuers including Citi, Société Générale and J.P. Morgan, suspended trading some of their product offerings including derivatives warrants (DWs) and callable bull/bear contracts (CBBCs). The total amount reached 166 products, 85% of which were CBBCs, according to filings issuers made to the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearings (HKEX). Industry sources told SRP that the delisting is an operational, clean-up move for products unlikely to generate volume.

In the US, shares of Boeing Co (BA) dipped further since the Alaska Airlines incident of 5 January, which has also led to other problems including delays of its delivery of 737 MAX jets to China. The shares opened at US$210.89 on Friday 19 January, down 16.2% year-to-date.

Several products in the US have failed to autocall because of the share’s underperformance year-to-date, causing uncertainty to investors. Meanwhile, most of the live products linked to the NYSE-listed airplane manufacturer remain in the safety zone in terms of downside barriers, coupons and final payout, SRP data shows.

Also in the US, over the last two years the underlying assets with large market cap have continued to dominate the notional going into structured products, beating their referenced assets even after times of market disruption, according to StructrPro.

In Europe, Deutsche Bank introduced its first equity-linked structure in Belgium since March 2023 - Europe Accelerator 2029 - as investors look to diversify their exposures. The five-year, capital protected note offers 200% participation in the upside performance of the Eurostoxx 50, capped at 25%. The overall minimum capital return at maturity is 110%.

In France, three former investment bankers are looking to leave the mark of start-up NeoLife, an independent financial structuring company serving savings and retirement distributors, in the retirement market. Founded in 2021, the company is a business-to-business (B2B) control function intermediary and an administrator of retirement products with an aim to bridge the gap between investment banks and retail distributors.

Pierre Moretti (formerly at Natixis), Antoine Garaialde (formerly at J.P. Morgan) and Alban de Follin (formely at Barclays) also launched Nutkin, a B2C provider, which offers retirement investment and saving solutions to retail investors.

Meanwhile, Swiss private bank Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) reported a 30% increase of its structured product traded notional in Asia in 2023 year-on-year. Headquartered in Singapore, the Apac arm focuses on utilising structured products to improve the risk-reward profile of wealth management clients, positioning them as alternatives to cash equity or cash bond, Karrie Fung, head of wealth management sales and execution for Asia at UBP, told SRP.

US index provider MerQube has partnered with Impact Cubed to create bespoke next generation ESG indices as part of its strategy to enter the European market with a differentiated offering and follows the alignment with the Benchmark Regulation (BMR) and the approval by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

On the people moves side of the market, the past week saw a reshuffle of equity derivatives (EQD) leadership team at UBS, including the appointment of Ernest Ng as head of EQD, Apac, and Ihab Daouk, head of EQD, Americas. Ng joined from now-defunct Credit Suisse where he was most recently global head of exotics while Daouk has been worked for UBS since 2015. The duo report to Thibaut Delahaye, global head of EQD, based in London.

A new journey also started for Boris Jin, former head of equity and distribution sales, Asia ex-Japan at Crédit Agricole’s corporate and investment bank (Cacib) from September 2019. Jin has just been appointed deputy chief executive officer (CEO) at Korea’s Hanwha Investment and Securities, an active issuer of structured products, based in Seoul.

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