Barclays Capital
The U.K. house is new on the scene and is making headway through aggressive pricing, according to rivals and buysiders. The firm has also worked on some of the more innovative transactions this year.
BNP Paribas
The firm is seen as being in control of the vanilla fund-linked business. Active in writing options on a range of indices and fund of hedge funds, BNP is also a player in offering capital protection on liquid funds through constant proportion portfolio insurance.
Deutsche Bank is a solid player in the fund-linked market and uses its managed accounts to great advantage. Buysiders said it is competitive on pricing of vanilla trades, but also willing to structure more bespoke products such as capital protecting single-strategy hedge funds.
Dealers say they are increasingly competing for investors with Goldman, a relatively new arrival on the scene. Distributors say it is carving a niche for itself as a structurer of single hedge fund-linked products.
SG Corporate & Investment Banking
SG, like BNP Paribas, dominates in terms of volumes of products it sells and end-users noted it stands out for its readiness to price more exotic products on demand. The French firm is also seen as one of the most successful in the U.S. and Asia.
