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Americas Showcase & AwardsAnd the 2020 Americas Award Winners are…
![]() Announcing the mtn-i 14th Americas Structured Note AwardsPOST-COVID ANNOUNCEMENTWhile preparing to announce mtn-i’s 14th Americas Structured Note Awards, global markets were shaken to their core due to the advent of Covid-19. Never before, not even during the financial crisis of 2007, have our markets experienced such unprecedented levels of volatility and uncertainty. However, during these times, the structured note markets have showcased unrivalled resilience and elasticity. The products allowed investor base to achieve their widely varying goals by providing enhanced returns, protected downsides and exposure to asset classes otherwise out of the reach of many buyers. mtn-i’s mission is to reveal how structured products constantly evolve to meet investor needs in response to market conditions, and the current situation has offered an unparalleled insight into this process.
With some investors flocking to the relative safety of fixed-rate and step-up callables Wells Fargo stepped up to the plate and provided over a third of US interest rate structures during the crisis, helping support a 50% year-on-year increase in rate-linked supply. PRE-COVID ANNOUNCEMENT
Last year we decided to announce our Americas awards grouped by themes – spotlighting more clearly the range of the market’s solutions and relevance to investors in each case and the firms leading their innovation. This year we continue on this path, highlighting the main drivers of innovation and investors solutions through 2019 as verified by mtn-i’s data. The foremost players in structured note markets across the market accessed multiple growth trends via multiple asset classes. Bank of America, mtn-i’s US Structured Products Dealer of the Year, led from the front, tapping into multiple trends in the ELN market while rapidly expanding its rates platform to meet the needs of its broad client base. In ELN space, Barclays has recaptured the top spot on the issuers league table, increasing its market share in an ever-competitive environment and making it once again the Equity-Linked Issuer of the Year. Taking two House of the Year awards alongside an Editor’s Award Citigroup. As a leader in structured rates products the bank was integral in the resurgence of lighter structures also growing feeding demand for more complex products and was a leading dealer of the World Bank‘s callables in the US.
A wave of demand for lightly structured rates products hit the market during 2019. The World Bank made a herculean push into the US market for fixed-rate callables, reaching more than USD20bn in issuance over the course of 2019 and earning them the accolade for Callable Issuer of the Year. Tapping into the same trend, Ford Motor Credit Corp, mtn-i’s Corporate Issuer of the Year, accounted for 50% of all SEC-registered retail-targeted corporate callables thanks to the reach if Incapital‘s InterNote program.
The diversification of exposures is a trend that has transcended the pre and post-coronavirus eras as investors have accelerated their search for new structures and underlyings. At one end of the spectrum, BBVA structured tweaks on traditional products while on the other end Credit Agricole led the way with a dynamic fund-linked solution. AAM and Desjardins, meanwhile, brought greater international equity exposure to their respective markets.
Incapital took its market-linked product sales to USD5.7bn by the end of 2019, a record breaking achievementthat has landed it a Distributor of the Year award. The growth story is evident across Incapital’s business which saw a 9% growth in overall note sales and more than a 70% expansion in its distribution of rates structures. Alongside this Incapital also became a leading liquidity provider in the secondary market.
CLICK TO SEE THE WINNERS! |
Time to think about the Americas Structured Note Awards…
![]() Nominations open next month for our Americas Awards!
Click here for details on how to pitch. NOMINATIONS OPEN: 20th January 2020 Book your pitch call / meeting at awards@mtn-i.com or +44 (0) 20 7437 1331. |
A Big Thank You from us at mtn-i
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Structure Tech! Tops Structured Americas Agenda!
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And rightly so because Structure Tech is reinventing every step of structured investing from note conception to post trade investor relations. It’s creating new underlying and payoff opportunities and the biggest range of underlying access and risk / reward scenarios to the tech sector itself! And with the on-boarding of every major manufacturer to multi-issuer platforms the entire market is set to be catalysed by digitisation. Structure Tech is an unmissable exploration of the future for manufacturers, issuers, distributors, FAs, RIAs and private wealth managers. Top executives from HALO and LUMA (including LUMA Founder and CEO, Tim Bonacci) will pitch the latest versions of their platforms in our 5 minute Pitch Star sessions and be joined by SIMON to collectively consider digitisation’s expected transformation of the future of structured investments in the The Platform Play-off Panel which follows. And answer your questions! Nine more of Structured America’s fastest growing structured investment themes are showcased and spotlighted across the rest of the showcase agenda and represented by the executives leading their evolution. These themes also lead the Awards recognitions we will be celebrating later that night at the 13th Americas Awards Dinner – which will be presented by theme for the first time! This year’s mtn-i America’s Structured Note Networking Lunch, Afternoon Showcase and Awards Dinner is an unmissable exploration of the future of structured investments for manufacturers, issuers, distributors, custodians, law firms, FAs, RIAs, Private Wealth Managers and Family Offices. And with 30 leading firms across these categories already signed up to attend – it’s an even bigger networking opportunity – not least because of our infamous tea-time Speed Networking. What’s more – our unique format is designed to deliver more between lunch and tea time than many conferences achieve across two days – giving you more time to build relationships and opportunities . And weather permitting – you won’t even have to leave the Palm Grove Pool Side to go indoors. There’s still time to sign up! Email shannon@mtn-i.com! We look forward to seeing you! Dress code – Poolside Business-Casual. |
And the 2019 Americas Award Winners are…
![]() Volatility Rises, Structures Surge!mtn-i is excited to announce its 13th Americas Structured Note Awards in a period when volatility across asset classes and rising rates drove the biggest year in a decade for the US structured products market. New structuring techniques enhanced value for investors, including the use of AI and key consolidations in the digital platform space set the scene for a revolution in distribution and the potential for this market to connect with advisors and investors. US sales grew 15% to USD65bn as manufactures and distributors delivered an expanded toolbox of solutions to navigate choppy equities, volatile rates and swings in other asset classes that defined the last 12 months. mtn-i’s missionmtn-i’s mission to reveal how structured products constantly evolve to meet investor needs in response to market conditions and identify the market’s most relevant themes and growth stories always drives our award decisions. For the first time we are announcing and presenting our Americas awards grouped by these themes – spotlighting more clearly the range of the market’s solutions and relevance to investors in each case and the firms leading their innovation. This also highlights which themes are finding the strongest traction with investors as verified by mtn-i’s data. Digital Distribution & AI Indices
The new found independence of SIMON, and its onboarding of the leading manufacturers as equity partners, the continued innovation and independence of HALO, and the consolidation of two of the market’s deepest distribution channels into LUMA, have inspired manufacturers, issuer and advisor to see digital execution and distribution as reaching critical mass in its potential to be powerful force in driving the market’s future – and earning them a collective Editor’s Award. SIMON is also scooping a Market Futures Award for leading the growing enthusiasm for the online distribution of structured notes and transforming the conversation around multi-issuer platforms. In the proprietary index space Credit Suisse utilised RavenPack‘s artificial intelligence algorithms to leverage hard and soft data to create the Artificial Intelligence Sentiment Index. The benchmark harnesses the power of ‘big data’ analytics to make sector allocation decisions.
The US investment bank’s Manufacturer award also recognises its pioneering of dual-direction worst-of products while BNP Paribas brought a growing number of RIAs to the structured note arena with bespoke solutions. Meanwhile, Canadian investors looked to stock-linked structures to find returns in a more volatile environment with Bank of Montreal providing the greatest number of tickets to the market.
Corporate credits also found traction in this environment with Incapital providing retail with access to Caterpillar, Ford, General Motors and Verizon while Toyota Motor Finance Corp made its landmark debut outing in the US retail space, issuing USD2bn in IncomeDrive Notes.
Range accruals returned to the GSE space care of FHLB. Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Stifel Nicolaus all found demand for the re-emergent structure. Barclays led innovation in US dollar CMS pushing a USD20m series of principal-at-risk paper linked to the 10-year rate. Providing Mexican investors with a solution to falling returns on traditional rate-linked products BBVA opened the market for notes linked to TIIE swaps. An uptick in rates also prompted the appearance of floating coupons in the ELN market with Bank of Nova Scotia pioneering the product in Canada.
The World Bank cemented it position as a leader in solutions-focused new structures becoming the only supra active in commodity-linked issues with a unique floating rate, callable, puttable product.
In the US JP Morgan stands as the benchmark against which other names compare themselves growing its business by 10% and gaining market share. Leading volume and innovation in the equity-linked space across structures and underliers, the name is also competitive across asset classes and channels of distribution making it our Manufacturer of the Year. The World Bank, mtn-i’s Americas Issuer of the Year, spread recognition of its name across institutional and retail clients with a range of structures targeting the US and LatAm. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs has provided leadership in rates, across light and complex structures, while Societe Generale supplied volume and innovation in the 3a2 market. Among broker-dealers Incapital stands out for wide spread distribution of structured products from a range of credits. CIBC has been spotted at the front of many of the recent trend in Canada’s structured note market including single stock notes on a variety of domestic and foreign underlyings, hybrid index linkers and oil future plays. For its innovation in onshore deals in Mexico and Brazil alongside its third-party structuring Citi wins a Latin American Structurer of the Year Award. For their overall performances in the US two Canadian names rose to prominence. National Bank of Canada rocketed out of the starting gate with USD800m of ELNs issued while Bank of Nova Scotia expanded its output in equities and rates, bringing in new distribution channels and going toe-to-toe with the biggest names in the third-party space. CLICK TO SEE THE WINNERS !Star showcase!Book your seat now for our poolside Showcase and Awards on April 4th and don’t miss the inspiration and company of Americas’ most creative and influential structured note players. Reserve your seat / table here now! |
*NOMINATIONS CLOSING SOON* Americas Structured Note Awards
![]() NOMINATIONS CLOSING SOON
You have until 15th February to submit your nominations and complete a conference call to pitch with the mtn-i team. Email your submission to awards@mtn-i.com or call us on +44 (0)20 7437 1331. Save the date to celebrate: 4th April 2019, The Four Seasons, Miami. We are currently running a 10% early-bird discount on all bookings. Email events@mtn-i.com to book your delegate pass now! |