Picard | Angst Group to become SSPA passive member; risk figure available ahead of the first day of trading

Swiss Structured Products Association SSPA has added Picard | Angst Group to its membership roll. In addition, the risk figure is now available prior to the first day of trading.

Zurich, July 22, 2009. Welcoming Picard | Angst, one of the biggest independent structured product providers in Switzerland, to passive membership marks the continuation of the SSPA’s strategy of broadening its market base. States SSPA President Roger Studer: “Targeted admission of new Association members helps promote structured product understanding and information dissemination throughout Switzerland”.

Risk figure now available prior to initial trading day Derivative Partners Research has optimized data processing to the point that the SSPA can calculate Value at Risk*, or VaR, ahead of the first day of trading. This means that the risk figure and SSPA risk rating of most structured products are now available before the stock exchanges open on a product’s first day of trading. SSPA Vice-President Paolo Vanini: “This step makes SSPA risk ratings even more beneficial to investors”. To calculate a structured product’s VaR ahead of the first day of trading, SSPA needs a definitive termsheet. If it is late, risk figure calculation is made after the first day of trading.

* Value at Risk (VaR): VaR, the financial industry’s most widely used method of assessing an investment’s market risk, systematically examines the effect of a product’s or portfolio’s risk mutations, including volatility, interest rates and price of underlying, to infer likelihood and extent of possible loss.