Structured Products – Swiss Derivative Awards 2019

The winning products span a variety of different areas and underline the continued innovative strength of the industry.

SIX has been the main sponsor of the industry event for a number of years now. "As the leading exchange for structured products, we are pleased, as the sponsor, to be able to celebrate the achievements of the best innovative products together with the winners at the annual awards ceremony. It has now become the industry event and is seen by Swiss and foreign structured product experts as an excellent networking opportunity - we are proud to have made a real contribution to the event", explained André Buck.

The jury, which comprised Prof. Marc Oliver Rieger (Chairman), Dr. Heinz Kubli (Fundabilis), Serge Nussbaumer (Derivative Partners) and André Buck (SIX), were again spoilt for choice this year. All products issued in Switzerland in 2018 or before and listed on the Swiss exchange operated by SIX were eligible for the awards. In each category, an expert committee nominated their three favorites. All the winners and nominees were then determined following a count and confirmed by the Chairman of the jury. Where scores were even, the Chairman cast the deciding vote. The winners were announced on Thursday, 21 March 2019 at Zurich’s AURA event arena. Over 250 invited guests from the European derivatives industry attended the event.

Best Equity Product

The winner of the equities category, the WEEDTQ tracker certificate from Leonteq Securities on the Swissquote Cannabis Portfolio, offers investors simple and broadly diversified access to the cannabis investment theme for the first time. With a transaction volume of more than USD 23 million with almost 3'000 transactions, this clearly struck a chord with investors. The basket currently contains 18 securities, which cover business activities ranging from cultivation, through to distribution and consumption. Performance skyrocketed within a very short period of time and by the end of September, had reached a peak of 60%, before profit-taking occurred in the fourth quarter.

Best Precious Metal Currency Product

The Z18CPZ capital-protected certificate with participation on USD/TRY from Zürcher Kantonalbank addresses the theme of interest rate parity with the necessary degree of protection. A recovery usually follows a crash, which proved to be the case with the Turkish lira as well. The winning product, which was launched at the end of September, allowed investors to bet on the normalization of the Turkish lira against the US dollar paired with 95% capital protection and a one-year term. This is an offering which has thus far proved to be extremely lucrative.

Best Commodity Product

In this category, the UBS capital-protected certificate on WTI crude oil KBTVDU took home first prize. This investment product offers 100% capital protection, runs until 20 June 2022 and offers a 150% participation above the exercise price of USD 66.22 per barrel. While the date of issue at the end of June was sub-optimal given crude oil suffered a severe setback in the fourth quarter of 2018, the capital protection meant that investors did not suffer any losses. The chances of crude oil prices recovering before maturity also remain intact. This means that it will be at least another two years before a definitive assessment can be made.

Best Index Product

The experts were particularly impressed by the CSSECS tracker certificate on Credit Suisse Swiss equities with Enhanced Collar Overlay Index. The investment product allows clients to participate in the upside potential of the SMI with low levels of risk.

Here, a systematic approach to buying and selling individual options ensures that a balance is struck between hedging responsiveness and hedging costs.

Best Product on Alternative Underlyings

In this category, the jury gave the prize to the HFJLTQ long/short tracker certificate on Swatch from Leonteq Securities, which involves an optimally timed Ecart trade on Swatch. The derivative bets on the spread narrowing between Swatch bearer shares and registered shares. The innovative concept of a market-neutral alpha strategy opens up a welcome investment opportunity which unfortunately had rarely found buyers previously.

The Best Market Makers

Fair prices on the secondary market are a key element of a good investment product for investors. In the area of leveraged products, Bank Julius Baer won first prize as the best market maker.

The issuer stands out thanks to its consistently high-quality issue pricing on the secondary market of SIX Structured Products In terms of investment products, Zürcher Kantonalbank stood on the top step of the podium.

Special Award: Basler Kantonalbank

The Special Achievement Award for 2018 went to Basler Kantonalbank as the issuer of the BKSPI tracker certificate on the SPI, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last August.

It is the only investment product that allows investments in the Swiss Performance Index. It is a beacon of consistency in the market, is cost-efficient, easy for clients to understand and generates real added value.

"Top Service" for the Best

The issuers’ services were assessed according to the criteria of term sheet quality, brochure and client magazine quality, derivative website quality, market-making quality, investor surveys as well as pricing.

This year, the jury bestowed this honor on the following issuers: Bank Vontobel, Leonteq Securities, UBS and Zürcher Kantonalbank.

Find out more about the event and products at www.swiss-derivative-awards.ch.

SIX would like to congratulate all the winners and nominees for their consistently excellent achievements.

The products mentioned are listed on SIX: www.six-structured-products.com.