Taiwan's Securities And Futures Commission is preparing to open an equity-linked note market next year in a step to further expand the onshore derivatives market. "This is a huge positive," said Justin Kennedy, managing director of Asia Pacific equity derivatives at Salomon Smith Barney in Hong Kong. Wang Hung Rui, an official at the SFC in Taipei, said the regulator will permit equity-linked notes as well as warrants on stocks listed on the GreTai Securities Market by April.
Michelle Liu, an official in the derivatives department at Yuanta Core Pacific Securities in Taipei, one of Taiwan's largest securities houses, said, "We're planning to offer these once we have permission."
Officials at the SFC said the move comes on the back of allowing other products, including asset swaps (DW, 6/17/01) and credit and interest rate derivatives onshore (DW, 9/1). Wang said it is still being discussed if foreign firms will be able to issue ELNs directly to endusers. "I'm very optimistic about this market," said an official at Morgan Stanley.
