New York (July 11, 2007) – LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – The Structured Products Association, a New York-based trade group, helped develop a set of non-binding principles relating to retail structured products that were released today by five leading international trade associations.
Keith Styrcula, founder and chairman of the Structured Products Association, said, “We applaud the efforts by these five trade associations to put together a global framework for the structured products investment class, and continue to believe that the U.S. industry will seek to go even beyond the principles released today.”
The Principles focus particularly on the management of the relationship between providers and distributors, from the perspectives of firms performing either function. They seek to address issues that financial services firms have in practice found helpful to consider when performing these roles in connection with the process of delivering structured products to retail investors.
The Principles are the product of a working group of firms, taking in the views of both distributors and providers and supported by a coalition of trade associations: European Securitisation Forum (ESF), International Capital Market Association (ICMA), International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), London Investment Banking Association (LIBA) and Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA). The associations initially issued the Principles for public comment on April 19 and are today publishing them in final form.
“We were pleased to be able to provide constructive feedback to the coalition of trade associations working on these groundbreaking principles,” added Mr. Styrcula. “They will prove to be very helpful to the entire structured products industry going forward. The SPA particularly wants to thank Anna Pinedo and Joe Inzerillo for their invaluable work in drafting the SPA’s comment letter on this important issue.”
Anna Pinedo, partner in Morrison & Foerster’s Capital Markets group, and Joe Inzerillo, assistant general counsel, legal department, in the New York office of Barclays Capital, co-chairs of the SPA’s Best Practices Committee, co-authored the original draft of the SPA’s comment letter articulating the U.S. perspective on the issue and explaining the current state of the retail structured products industry in this country.
“I’m proud of the work the SPA has done in helping create a real understanding of the structured products market in the United States,” said Anna Pinedo. “The release of these non-binding principles will do much to provide a framework for retail structured products globally.”
Structured products include a variety of financial instruments that combine various cash assets and/or derivatives to provide a particular risk-reward profile that would not otherwise be available in the market. The exact risk-reward profile varies from instrument to instrument.
About the Structured Products Association
The Structured Products Association (SPA) is a New York-based trade group whose mission includes positioning structured products as a distinct asset class; promoting financial innovation among member firms; developing model “best practices” for members and their firms; identifying legal, tax, compliance and regulatory challenges to the business. With more than 2,300 members, the Association has members from the exchanges, self-regulatory bodies, legal/compliance community, financial media, investor networks, family offices, and both buy-side and sell-side structured product firms. For more information, contact Keith Styrcula at keith.styrcula@structuredproducts.org or (917) 612-1896.
About Morrison & Foerster
With more than one thousand lawyers in eighteen offices around the world, Morrison & Foerster offers clients comprehensive, global legal services in business and litigation. The firm is distinguished by its unsurpassed expertise in finance, life sciences, and technology, its legendary litigation skills, and an unrivaled reach across the Pacific Rim, particularly in Japan and China. We have one compelling mission: to deliver success for our clients.
