A trade for all directions

Structured products providers are facing a new challenge. Keeping returns up in an environment of low interest rates on the zero-coupon element, when the options needed for capital protection have become more expensive, is exercising the brains of all providers, though private banking clients are slowly beginning to accept more fixed-coupon products rather than those with equity-like returns.

The recent convulsions in global equity markets have forced these private banking accounts to look at