SRP Digest: Global Innovation and Shifting Demand Shapes the Market
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The structured products market experienced a surge of activity over the past week, driven by new launches and evolving investor appetite across key global regions. From BNY Mellon's volatility-focused overlay fund in Europe to Van Lanschot Kempen’s dividend-based Phoenix autocallable in the Netherlands, issuers are responding to a growing demand for defensive yield strategies. In Asia, momentum continues with developments in Hong Kong, Malaysia and South Korea, while Canada sees the debut of its first ETFs using zero-day options.
Recent data from Q1 2025 signals a changing product landscape in Europe (excluding Switzerland), as capital-protected structures tied to interest rates decline markedly, while yield enhancement products gain ground. Despite overall volumes remaining below last year's elevated levels, early signs of recovery—particularly in equity-linked offerings—highlight renewed interest in selectively risk-managed products.
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This Week's Intel
The past week saw bustling activities in product launch with a focus on funds.
BNY Investments, part of The Bank of New York Mellon Corp, has introduced The BNY Adaptive Risk Overlay Fund aimed at delivering returns during periods of elevated market volatility. Available in several European jurisdictions, the product act as a portfolio overlay, targeting protection against tail risks.
In the Netherlands, Van Lanschot Kempen (VLK) has issued Trigger Plus Note Global Dividend 25-30 in an attempt to capitalise on high dividend stocks. The five-year Phoenix autocall offers a potential memory coupon of 5.95% pa, providing the underlying Stoxx Global Select Dividend 100 index closes at or above 80% of its starting price on any annual valuation date.
In a follow-up interview, Nick Piguard, chief options strategist at Hamilton ETFs, shined a light on a novel approach for asset allocation of its recently launched MaxDay exchange-traded fund (ETFs), which are the first ETFs using zero day to expire (0DTE) options in Canada.
London-based investment manager Investcorp-Tages has launched an actively managed certificate (AMC) on the paper of UBS. The certificate is linked to a reference portfolio managed by the hedge fund and is designed to provide investors with protection during periods of market stress through a dedicated tail risk strategy.
In Southeast Asia, CGS International Securities Malaysia, an indirect subsidiary of China Galaxy Securities, has rolled out two structured notes offering exposure to Shariah-compliant equities - the Islamic equity linked investment notes (ELIN-i) and Islamic autocallable equity structured investment notes (AESIN-i).
We’re also continuing to bring exclusive interviews with some of the winners of SRP Asia Pacific Awards 2025 following the announcement in June.
The Hong Kong listed structured products market is moving upwards and forwards this year so far.
One standout highlighted by Martin Wong, head of structured product development at HKEX, is the dozens of derivative warrants linked to Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) listed on the exchange on the same day as the Chinese electric vehicle battery maker's high-profile initial public offering (IPO) in the city on 20 May after raising around US$4.6 billion, the world’s largest IPO of the year so far.
For the Asian market, Société Générale in 2024 recorded a volume increase on its fixed income and equity structured products of around 40% and 15% year-on-year (YoY), respectively, according to Jung-Jin Yoon, Apac head of global markets sales.
The French bank’s traded volumes on structured products across the board rose around 25% on a full-year basis. “With the current environment around interest rates, we continue to see a bigger repositioning into fixed income [in 2024],” said Yoon.
Staying in Asia, Leonteq is in the process of selling its onshore business in Japan as part of its new roadmap for the next 12 to 24 months after the Swiss issuer tumbled in 2024 with profit down 71% from the previous year.
The plan is built around three pillars including the resizing of underperforming areas, optimising established activities and expanding high potential areas. It was announced in Leonteq’ s earnings report for Q2 2025 where the underlying profit before taxes came to CHF 17.1m (US$21.5 m) for H1 2025, a 33% increase YoY, putting the company ‘on track to deliver profitable underlying results’ for 2025.
South Korea logged a rebound of equity-linked structured products for the first half of the year, according to a report released by Korea Securities Depository (KSD). The sales of equity-linked securities (ELS) jumped by over 27% YoY to KRW10.1 trillion while that of equity-linked bonds (ELBs) increased over 11% to KRW11.6 trillion.
Their combined outstanding balance went up over five percent to KRW53.6 trillion (US$38.6 billion) as of 30 June from a year ago, according to the Korea Securities Depository's (KSD) half-year report released on 21 July.
Furthermore, our Taiwan Market Review, Q2 2025 highlighted a mutual fund and futures contracts with ESG elements while Natixis started to lead the issuer league table.
BNP Paribas is the issuer of an eight-year note linked to the M&G (Lux) Global Sustain Paris Aligned USD A Acc Fund, an actively-managed mutual fund accredited with ESG labels and first seen in the global structured product according to SRP data. Additionally, there were 11 short-dated products issued by DBS Bank in the quarter tracking Europe ECX EUA Future.
Natixis also stood out for its foray in Polish public offerings, according to Poland Market Review, Q2 2025. An estimated PLN1.3 billion (US$353m) was collected from 50 publicly offered products in the country in the second quarter of 2025.
Germany maintained its momentum in Q2 2025 following a strong start of the year. Sales volumes remained steady at €4.55 billion (down just 0.4% QoQ), while issuance stayed near record levels with 7,128 products launched, according to Germany Market Review Q2 2025.
In the UK, an estimated £100m (US$134m) was gathered from 68 publicly offered structured products in June. Demand for capital protection spiked while Barclays stayed at the top of issuer table.
Last but not least, our weekly Spotlight takes a look at global market trends by sales activities, contending that the market is in good shape with sales more than doubled since 2020 and reaching an all-time high in 2024.
This Week's Data Insight
In Q1 2025, the European structured products market (ex-Switzerland) showed a moderate rebound, with total sales reaching US$36.8 billion, marking a 4.2% increase quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) from Q4 2024.
However, this still represents a 23% decline year-on-year (YoY) compared to the exceptionally high issuance volumes of Q1 2024 (US$48.1 billion), which were boosted by capital protected roducts linked to interest rates.
The most significant development in Q1 2025 was the decline in capital-protected products, especially those linked to interest rates, which fell from US$15.3 billion in Q1 2024 to just US$7.8 billion in Q1 2025 — a 49% drop YoY and a -11% QoQ decline.
In contrast, capital protected products linked to equity showed signs of stabilization, increasing 1.8% QoQ to US$5.4 billion, albeit still 36% lower YoY, suggesting that the activity may be selectively returning to equity-linked protected products.
On the other hand, yield enhancement products regained ground, reaching US$21.1 billion, up 14% QoQ and slightly up YoY (0.8%). These capital-at-risk products now account for the largest share of traded notional, favoured by the demand for income in a more stable rate environment.
The table below presents a detailed breakdown of payoffs sold in Europe ex-Switzerland in Q1 2025, focusing on traded notional, market share and sales growth
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