South Africa's Standard Bank recently kicked off its equity derivatives trading effort for Asia and plans to further expand into additional markets in the coming months. The bank lured an equity derivatives team from Bank of China International earlier this year (DW, 4/28) and after putting systems in place has started trading in equity derivatives referenced to underlying in Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Taiwan and China.
"We have a broad mandate in place," said Warren Kwan, head of equity derivatives in Hong Kong, explaining the team is building up proprietary trading capabilities as well as a distribution network for structured products. The team of 12 is looking in the coming months to begin trading in Korea as well as offer market access products to China once the firm obtains a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors license.
The bank is also aiming to launch retail structured products next year in the region, given the strong interest from investors, Kwan continued.
