Growth rate compared to 2017 at 20% – total turnover of CHF 331 bn in 2018

Turnover for Swiss structured products of the major SSPA members continued to strongly increase in 2018 and total turnover is with CHF 331 bn 20% or CHF 56 bn above the previous year’s figure. The total quarterly turnover was also above the previous year’s level and amounted in Q4 2018 to CHF 81 bn. Yield enhancement products continue to be the most popular investment category (46%), although their share was down on the previous year (57%). Equity (54%) and foreign exchange (27%) are still dominating the turnover. Non-listed products constitute about 62% of turnover in 2018 (2017: about 70%). With a total share of 84%, USD, EUR and CHF are still by far the major currencies used.

Zurich, 24. January 2019. Structured product value creation statistics drawn up by the Boston Consulting Group take account of 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, Raiffeisen Switzerland, UBS, Vontobel as well as Zurich Cantonal Bank took part in the survey for the fourth quarter of 2018. They represent a majority of the Swiss market.

Performance 2018 versus 2017:

• Total turnover of CHF 331 bn is CHF 56 bn higher than in 2017; year-on-year growth rate was 20%..
• Compared to the previous year, turnover grew in Q4 2018 by 16% and amounted to CHF 81 bn.
• With 46%, yield enhancement products accounted for approximately half of total turnover in 2018, declining by 11 percentage points from 57% in 2017; leverage products constituted the second-largest product group with 22% of total turnover in 2018. Driven by a nominal turnover increase of 45% year-on-year, the share of participation products increased to 16% in 2018 compared to 13% in 2017. Capital protection products made up 14% of total turnover in 2018, representing an increase of 1 percentage point compared to 2017. Leverage products represented again the vast majority of all structured products transactions with a share of 92%.
• With 54%, Equity products constituted the largest portion of total turnover in 2018, representing a share increase by 5 percentage points and a nominal turnover increase of 32% compared to previous year; the share of Foreign Exchange products on the other hand decreased from 33% to 27% compared to 2017. Despite nominal turnover growth, the share of Fixed Income products stagnated and reached 13% (previous year: 12%)..
• Non-listed products constituted about 62% of turnover in 2018; although nominally increasing by 7% to CHF 206 bn compared to 2017, the turnover share decreased by 8 percentage points.
• Despite nominally increasing by CHF 8 bn to CHF 183 bn, the primary market lost in 2018 9 percentage points of turnover share (from 64% to 55%) compared to previous year, due to nominal turnover growth of 49% of the secondary market (CHF 148 bn in 2018 relative to CHF 100 bn in 2017). The secondary market comprised around 98% of all transactions in 2018, with the number of transactions growing by 83% compared to 2017.
• USD is the predominant currency in 2018 with a share of 39%, but it lost 4 percentage points compared to previous year (43%). The share of EUR increased by 4 percentage points to 31%, while CHF lost 4 percentage points and reached a share of 14%.

SSPA President Georg von Wattenwyl on the developments in the industry: «We are pleased that the marked increase in turnover and thus the interest of investors from Switzerland and abroad continued in 2018. They see structured products as an attractive element for generating returns in the portfolio context, even in very volatile market conditions. This is also due to the innovative product offering, with which one can quickly participate in new market developments and trends. As an association, we are continuously committed to making this flexibility and product innovation even better known within the industry and beyond.»

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