Growth amounted significantly to 24% compared to previous year – total turnover for Q2 is CHF 83 bn

Turnover of Swiss structured products recorded by the largest SVSP members again rose substantially in the second quarter of 2018 with 17% – over the first half-year 2018, growth amounted to 24% compared to the first half-year 2017. Yield optimisation products (48%) were in particular demand as well as leverage products (22%) and participation products (17%). More than half of all products (54%) are based on equities, 29% on foreign exchange. The most important currencies for structured products were USD, EUR and CHF, accounting for 84% of the total.

Zurich, 31 July 2018. Structured product value creation statistics drawn up by The Boston Consulting Group take account of stock market listed as well as unlisted products created in or for Switzerland that are sold nationally as well as internationally. SSPA members Barclays Capital, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Julius Baer, Leonteq, Notenstein La Roche, Raiffeisen, UBS, Vontobel as well as Zürcher Kantonalbank took part in the survey for the second quarter of 2018. These represent the largest part of the Swiss market.

Most important developments in the second quarter of 2018:

• Total turnover of CHF 83 bn is CHF 12 bn higher than in Q2 2017 (CHF 71 bn); growth rate compared to the previous year is 17%. Over the first half-year 2018, growth amounted to 24% compared to the first half-year 2017.
• With 48%, yield enhancement products account for nearly half of the total turnover in Q2 2018, declining from 58% in Q2 2017; seeing a turnover growth of 82% compared to Q2 2017, leverage products constitute the second-largest product group with 22% of total turnover in Q2 2018. The share of participation products increased to 17% in Q2 2018 (Q2 2017: 14%). Capital protection products make up 11% in Q2 2018 (turnover growing by 15% compared to Q2 2017). Again, leverage products represent the vast majority (92%) of all structured products transactions.
• With 54%, Equity products represent the largest portion of total turnover in Q2 2018, growing by 31% compared to previous year; the share of Foreign Exchange products on the other hand decreased from 34% to 29% compared to previous year. Despite a nominal turnover growth of 4% compared to Q2 2017, the share of Fixed Income products decreased to 11% (previous year: 12%).
• Non-listed products constitute about 62% of turnover in Q2 2018; although nominally increasing by 3% from CHF 50 bn to CHF 51 bn compared to Q2 2017, the turnover share decreased by 9 percentage points.
• The primary market decreased nominally from CHF 47 bn in Q2 2017 to CHF 45 bn and lost 12 percentage points of turnover share (54%) compared to the previous year due to strong growth of the secondary market (CHF 38 bn relative to CHF 24 bn in Q2 2017). The secondary market comprised around 98% of all transactions in Q2 2018, with the number of transactions growing by 108% compared to Q2 2017.
• USD is again the predominant currency in Q2 2018 with a share of 38% (previous year: 42%). The share of EUR slightly increased by 3 percentage points to 32%, while CHF loses share reaching 14% (previous year: 18%).

SSPA Chairman Georg von Wattenwyl on developments within the sector: “The positive figures for the second quarter underpin the general trend towards increased demand for structured products in the first half of 2018. Innovative products are used in the portfolio context both in Switzerland and abroad to achieve optimum overall performance depending on the portfolio’s orientation and in order to be at the same time able to react quickly to market trends.”

Click on the link below for the full set of statistics: https://www.svsp-verband.ch/media/