Citi sets up retail structured investment group
Citigroup has set up a group responsible for the sale and structuring of structured investment products aimed at retail investors, bucking the trend of banks fleeing complex financial instruments and less than a month after it overhauled its European investment banking business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The US bank has appointed Richard Burns, currently head of equities structured products, to lead the newly formed Global retail structured products group, according to an internal memo.
The group has been set up to "capitalise better on the growing opportunities in the market for structured investment products", and will be responsible for the marketing, structuring, sales and secondary trading of structured investment products.
The memo from Jim Cowles, head of Global equities products, and Paco Ybarra, head of Global fixed income, currencies and commodities products, said: "In his current role as head of equities structured products, he [Burns] and his team have created an innovative set of products, a leading marketing platform and an extensive internal and external sales network. In his new role, Richard will report to both of us."
Burns will continue to manage the multi-asset & fund derivatives joint venture, and is expected to make further organisation announcements about the group in the near future. Burns, along with Cowles and Ybarra, will be based in London.
The group's formation follows sweeping structural changes to Citi's investment banking and capital markets operations in Emea.
In an internal memo, Citi said it had fully aligned the "front-end" coverage efforts of its investment and corporate banking operations and that of its capital markets origination business, the first time the US bank has done so on a joint basis with its "global product and client partners".
Structured investment products have endured a torrid time in the past year as a result of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, with market regulators and politicians rushing to force through changes to the securitisation techniques used.
Legitimate structured finance activity, which relates to deals originated and publicly distributed to a third party investor, has taken a back seat in the past nine months to banks originating securitised deals to retain and use to swap for short-term funding with central banks.
-- Write to Matt Turner at mturner@efinancialnews.com
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