Bank of America is still No. 1 structured notes agent for the year; lowest volume since 2009

By Emma Trincal

New York, June 3 – Bank of America remains the top agent, but its volume has significantly diminished since last year. Meanwhile overall volume is on the decline.

The market leader priced $3.96 billion as of the end of May, a striking 35% decline from $6.10 billion during the same five first months of last year, according to data compiled by Prospect News.

This drop in notional sales for the market champion has been seen each month this year as sales never made it to the $1 billion mark.

As Bank of America files its deals with the Securities and Exchange Commission late in the month, it is possible that the final number may be higher for May, especially with the Memorial Day weekend. But it is still unlikely to hit the $1 billion mark.

Record low volume

Directly related to Bank of America’s decreased sales is the shrinking overall volume for the year to date, which is at its lowest level since the beginning of the decade.

Sales so far this year are down 28.20% to $15.21 billion from $21.18 billion last year. League tables’ figures do not include exchange-traded notes. They also do not incorporate lightly structured interest-rate products with a structured coupon, such as step-up notes, step-down notes, fixed-to-floating notes and capped floaters, which are listed separately under the “structured coupon” designation.

Volume has declined in part because agents have priced fewer deals. The 18% drop in the number of offerings this year to 3,104 from 3,791 is also notable.

The average deal size is now $5 million instead of $6 million last year.

The declining volume is especially significant when compared to the same period in previous years. In fact it is the worst in the post-financial crisis area. One has to go back to the first five months of 2009 to find a weaker flow at $9 billion.

All other years between January and May showed much more robust flows with the exceptions of 2013 ($16.15 billion) and 2012 ($17 billion). But both of those years were still stronger than this year.

In the first five months of 2010, agents sold $18.80 billion, followed by $20 billion the next year. Sales accounted for $18.27 billion as of May 2014 for that year.

BofA, Goldman top

Bank of America captured this year with 26% of the total volume in 160 offerings.

But Goldman Sachs, the No. 2 agent, gained momentum, capturing a 17.73% market share with $2.70 billion in 330 deals and moving up two notches from a year ago. Those gains can be attributed to Goldman’s 10% increase in sales. They are also partly due to Bank of America’s steep decline.

JPMorgan, which was the second agent last year, dropped to third. Barclays followed, moving up one notch.

For May, Bank of America’s No. 1 ranking is solidly established with nearly 30% of the total volume and 32 offerings totaling $696 million. JPMorgan remains second with $383 million and over 16% of the market shares. It priced 117 deals.

Equity quasi monopoly

Equity has always dominated the structured note market, but in previous years, other asset classes, notably commodities up until 2011 and rates until 2012, offered diversification and support when market turmoil was hampering equity sales. For example, interest-rate notes (excluding structured coupon) represented 12% of the volume in 2009 but only 1% three years later, according to data compiled by Prospect News.

Commodities, which took an 11% market share from 2009 to 2011, now account for not even 1% of the total.

Bank of America is the top agent for commodity-linked notes with $31 million in three deals, or nearly half of the total. Agents only priced 25 deals in this asset class this year for a meager total of $66 million. This number pales in comparison to sales in prior years, such as $2.58 billion in the first five months of 2011 prior to the bear market that hit sales in this asset class.

Equity indexes remained the strong asset class, but volume has decreased by nearly 11% to $12.31 billion.

Bank of America remains No. 1 in this sector with $3.63 billion, or nearly 30% of the total in 137 offerings. Goldman Sachs has gained market share with $2.57 billion, a 35% jump from last year, pushing down one notch JPMorgan.

Bank of America has captured the top slot in single-stock sales for the year to date with $251 million, or 19.70% of the total in 14 deals. Traditionally UBS and on some occasions JPMorgan have held the crown in this asset class.

Bank of America acquired the No. 1 slot in stocks in March and has kept it since then. JPMorgan is now No. 2 and UBS, last year’s top agent, No. 3.

Foreign exchange deals represent only $72 million. JPMorgan commands 62% of this tiny market with $44 million in 14 deals.

Rates

Interest rate issuance is down 85% to $105 million from $696 million for the year.

Wells Fargo is the top agent in this category, moving up two notches from last year and pushing down Goldman Sachs, the former top agent, to No. 3.

Those traditional interest rate deals do not include structured coupons as defined earlier. Structured coupons are not part of the totals in the league tables but are counted separately.

The top agent for structured coupons remains First Tennessee with $1.52 billion. These types of notes represent a total of $22.28 billion, a 23% drop from last year.

Top issuers

The issuers’ league tables show a jump for Bank of America Corp., which took the first slot from fifth last year. Fifty two deals this year totaling $2 billion were brought to market by this issuer

Credit Suisse AG, London Branch is No. 2 with $1.70 billion issued.

All structured products, no ETNs, by agent, year to date

2015 Comparables

	Underwriter	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Bank of America 3.958	160	26.02%	1	6.084	179	28.73%
2	Goldman Sachs	2.697	330	17.73%	4	2.453	265	11.58%
3	JPMorgan	2.232	681	14.68%	2	3.872	763	18.28%
4	Barclays	1.075	243	7.06%	5	1.431	251	6.75%
5	Credit Suisse	1.035	294	6.80%	7	0.700	211	3.30%
6	Morgan Stanley	0.841	168	5.53%	6	1.118	209	5.28%
7	UBS	0.773	501	5.08%	3	2.669	1210	12.60%
8	HSBC	0.703	213	4.62%	9	0.594	255	2.80%
9	Citigroup	0.505	124	3.32%	8	0.657	125	3.10%
10	RBC	0.417	131	2.74%	10	0.433	107	2.04%
	Total	15.211	3104	21.180	3791
	Average size:	0.005	0.006
All structured products, by agent, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Credit Suisse	4.337	537	21.86%	2	5.905	598	20.78%
2	Bank of America 3.958	160	19.95%	1	6.084	179	21.41%
3	Goldman Sachs	2.697	330	13.60%	5	2.453	265	8.63%
4	JPMorgan	2.232	681	11.25%	3	3.872	763	13.63%
5	Barclays	2.071	245	10.44%	6	2.370	254	8.34%
6	UBS	1.073	506	5.41%	4	3.622	1217	12.74%
7	Morgan Stanley	0.841	168	4.24%	7	1.118	209	3.94%
8	HSBC	0.703	213	3.54%	9	0.594	255	2.09%
9	Citigroup	0.505	124	2.55%	8	0.657	125	2.31%
10	RBC	0.417	131	2.10%	10	0.433	107	1.52%
	Total	19.839	3373	28.417	4227
	Average size:	0.006	0.007
ETNs, by agent, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Credit Suisse	3.302	243	71.35%	1	5.205	387	71.93%
2	Barclays	0.997	2	21.54%	3	0.939	3	12.98%
3	UBS	0.300	5	6.48%	2	0.953	7	13.16%
4	Nuveen	0.029	19	0.63%	5	0.060	38	0.83%
	Total	4.628	269	7.237	436
	Average size:	0.017	0.017
All structured products, no ETNs, by agent, May
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Bank of America 0.696	32	29.55%	1	1.378	41	32.29%
2	JPMorgan	0.383	117	16.25%	2	0.700	152	16.41%
3	Goldman Sachs	0.324	49	13.76%	6	0.275	56	6.44%
4	HSBC	0.217	47	9.21%	9	0.085	38	2.00%
5	Barclays	0.150	41	6.35%	4	0.375	57	8.78%
6	Credit Suisse	0.140	46	5.96%	7	0.194	53	4.54%
7	Morgan Stanley	0.137	27	5.82%	5	0.311	50	7.30%
8	UBS	0.131	107	5.57%	3	0.543	242	12.73%
9	RBC	0.047	22	1.99%	13	0.047	14	1.11%
10	Citigroup	0.045	16	1.92%	8	0.114	27	2.67%
	Total	2.356	530	4.266	776
	Average size:	0.004	0.005
Commodity structured products, no ETNs, by agent, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Bank of America 0.031	3	47.28%	5	0.032	4	5.74%
2	JPMorgan	0.016	13	24.28%	1	0.249	36	44.64%
3	Citigroup	0.009	2	13.75%	3	0.087	5	15.60%
4	UBS	0.003	2	5.22%	8	0.005	2	0.84%
5	Goldman Sachs	0.002	2	3.64%	4	0.075	2	13.41%
6	Morgan Stanley	0.002	2	3.45%	2	0.100	29	17.85%
7	TD	0.002	1	2.38%
	Total	0.066	25	0.559	85
	Average size:	0.003	0.007
Equity index structured products, no ETNs, by agent, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Bank of America 3.631	137	29.50%	1	5.269	136	38.25%
2	Goldman Sachs	2.568	293	20.87%	3	1.906	220	13.84%
3	JPMorgan	1.739	479	14.13%	2	2.065	344	14.99%
4	Barclays	0.830	158	6.75%	5	0.861	148	6.25%
5	Credit Suisse	0.785	199	6.38%	6	0.547	145	3.97%
6	Morgan Stanley	0.600	112	4.88%	8	0.376	81	2.73%
7	HSBC	0.563	148	4.58%	7	0.388	159	2.82%
8	UBS	0.421	81	3.42%	4	1.372	188	9.96%
9	Citigroup	0.404	81	3.28%	9	0.285	64	2.07%
10	Wells Fargo	0.332	51	2.70%	13	0.056	10	0.41%
	Total	12.308	1890	13.774	1645
	Average size:	0.007	0.008
Foreign exchange structured products, no ETNs, by agent, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	JPMorgan	0.044	14	61.67%	1	0.082	22	58.22%
2	Morgan Stanley	0.019	2	26.93%
3	Barclays	0.007	2	9.23%	6	0.001	1	0.71%
4	Goldman Sachs	0.002	1	2.18%	7	0.000	1	0.07%
	Total	0.072	19	0.140	38
	Average size:	0.004	0.004
Interest rate structured products, no ETNs, by agent, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Wells Fargo	0.042	4	39.67%	3	0.125	6	17.98%
2	Morgan Stanley	0.016	2	15.21%	5	0.074	6	10.63%
3	Goldman Sachs	0.016	1	14.77%	1	0.200	9	28.69%
4	Incapital	0.012	3	11.72%
5	Citigroup	0.011	1	9.98%	4	0.076	11	10.95%
6	RBC	0.004	2	3.98%	12	0.001	1	0.14%
7	Deutsche Bank	0.002	1	2.00%	9	0.007	1	1.08%
8	JPMorgan	0.002	1	1.53%	6	0.030	7	4.34%
9	Barclays	0.001	1	1.14%	2	0.152	2	21.86%
	Total	0.105	16	0.696	48
	Average size:	0.007	0.015
Single stock structured products, no ETNs, by agent, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Bank of America 0.251	14	19.70%	3	0.652	27	16.79%
2	JPMorgan	0.222	96	17.47%	2	0.959	252	24.70%
3	UBS	0.220	357	17.30%	1	1.136	936	29.28%
4	Barclays	0.137	48	10.77%	5	0.279	68	7.20%
5	Credit Suisse	0.108	52	8.46%	10	0.067	36	1.72%
6	RBC	0.093	33	7.28%	9	0.079	25	2.03%
7	Morgan Stanley	0.084	22	6.60%	4	0.304	57	7.84%
8	HSBC	0.065	20	5.13%	8	0.093	19	2.41%
9	Goldman Sachs	0.056	19	4.39%	6	0.169	16	4.36%
10	Citigroup	0.028	16	2.23%	7	0.120	28	3.08%
	Total	1.272	682	3.881	1478
	Average size:	0.002	0.003
Interest rate products with structured coupons (not included above), by agent, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	First Tennessee	1.524	71	6.84%	1	2.182	91	7.54%
2	Multi-Bank	1.079	67	4.85%	28	0.313	23	1.08%
3	Piper Jaffray	0.900	39	4.04%	14	0.726	53	2.51%
4	Stifel	0.775	50	3.48%	2	1.671	67	5.77%
5	Incapital	0.758	49	3.40%	9	0.996	85	3.44%
6	Finacorp	0.745	43	3.34%	15	0.703	63	2.43%
7	Citigroup	0.699	17	3.14%	46	0.090	14	0.31%
8	Vining	0.681	67	3.06%	4	1.434	101	4.95%
9	RBC	0.667	49	2.99%	12	0.758	36	2.62%
10	Jefferies 0.637	33	2.86%	3	1.457	47	5.03%
	Total	22.277	905	28.944	1023
	Average size:	0.025	0.028
Interest rate products with structured coupons (not included above), no agencies, by agent, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Wells Fargo	0.200	15	19.40%	4	0.151	8	9.34%
2	Goldman Sachs	0.167	20	16.24%	2	0.265	29	16.39%
3	Morgan Stanley	0.112	5	10.84%	9	0.041	3	2.54%
4	Barclays	0.092	4	8.97%	1	0.408	7	25.28%
5	Bank of America 0.092	8	8.88%	6	0.103	5	6.41%
6	JPMorgan	0.091	18	8.84%	8	0.078	18	4.83%
7	RBC	0.067	9	6.52%	3	0.224	20	13.86%
8	Citigroup	0.059	9	5.67%	11	0.035	8	2.14%
9	Jefferies 0.050	1	4.85%
10	BMO	0.047	8	4.53%	18	0.001	1	0.06%
	Total	1.031	110	1.616	141
	Average size:	0.009	0.011
All structured products, no ETNs, by issuer, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Bank of America Corp.	2.001	52	13.16%	5	2.247	46	10.61%
2	Credit Suisse AG, London Branch	1.696	365	11.15%	4	2.276	338	10.75%
3	Barclays Bank plc	1.503	277	9.88%	1	2.970	330	14.02%
4	GS Finance Corp. (Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.)	1.456	303	9.57%
5	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	1.266	30	8.32%	3	2.534	297	11.96%
6	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	1.083	368	7.12%	2	2.869	652	13.55%
7	HSBC USA Inc.	1.078	247	7.09%	6	1.870	340	8.83%
8	Morgan Stanley	0.603	116	3.96%	8	1.216	221	5.74%
9	UBS AG, London Branch	0.576	458	3.79%	9	1.067	888	5.04%
10	Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce	0.546	28	3.59%	22	0.007	9	0.03%
	Total	15.211	3104	21.180	3791
	Average size:	0.005	0.006
All structured products, by issuer, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Credit Suisse AG, Nassau Branch	3.329	256	16.78%	1	5.295	398	18.63%
2	Barclays Bank plc	2.500	279	12.60%	2	3.909	333	13.76%
3	Bank of America Corp.	2.001	52	10.09%	6	2.247	46	7.91%
4	Credit Suisse AG, London Branch	1.696	365	8.55%	5	2.276	338	8.01%
5	GS Finance Corp. (Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.)	1.456	303	7.34%
6	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	1.266	30	6.38%	4	2.534	297	8.92%
7	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	1.083	368	5.46%	3	2.869	652	10.10%
8	HSBC USA Inc.	1.078	247	5.43%	7	1.870	340	6.58%
9	UBS AG, London Branch	0.876	463	4.42%	8	1.639	894	5.77%
10	Morgan Stanley	0.603	116	3.04%	10	1.216	221	4.28%
	Total	19.839	3373	28.417	4227
	Average size:	0.006	0.007
Commodity structured products, no ETNs, by issuer, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Bank of America Corp.	0.031	3	47.28%	6	0.032	4	5.74%
2	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	0.016	12	23.86%	1	0.121	31	21.74%
3	Citigroup Global Markets Holdings Inc.	0.009	2	13.75%
4	UBS AG, London Branch	0.004	3	5.64%	8	0.010	4	1.80%
5	GS Finance Corp. (Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.)	0.002	2	3.64%
6	Morgan Stanley	0.002	2	3.45%	3	0.104	30	18.56%
7	Toronto-Dominion Bank	0.002	1	2.38%
	Total	0.066	25	0.559	85
	Average size:	0.003	0.007
Equity index structured products, no ETNs, by issuer, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Bank of America Corp.	1.900	43	15.44%	1	2.051	35	14.89%
2	Credit Suisse AG, London Branch	1.424	253	11.57%	2	2.006	232	14.56%
3	GS Finance Corp. (Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.)	1.355	269	11.01%
4	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	1.238	27	10.06%	3	1.970	238	14.30%
5	Barclays Bank plc	1.121	182	9.10%	4	1.922	174	13.96%
6	HSBC USA Inc.	0.917	178	7.45%	5	1.384	207	10.05%
7	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	0.761	238	6.18%	6	1.275	272	9.26%
8	Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce	0.515	26	4.19%
9	Morgan Stanley	0.435	81	3.54%	8	0.478	94	3.47%
10	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	0.363	46	2.95%	7	1.115	101	8.10%
	Total	12.308	1890	13.774	1645
	Average size:	0.007	0.008
Foreign exchange structured products, no ETNs, by issuer, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	0.032	9	44.06%	1	0.059	6	42.08%
2	Morgan Stanley	0.019	2	26.93%
3	JPMorgan Chase Financial Co. LLC	0.008	3	10.46%
4	Barclays Bank plc	0.007	2	9.23%	5	0.012	2	8.74%
5	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	0.005	2	7.14%	2	0.027	3	19.15%
6	GS Finance Corp. (Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.)	0.002	1	2.18%
	Total	0.072	19	0.140	38
	Average size:	0.004	0.004
Interest rate structured products, no ETNs, by issuer, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Wells Fargo & Co.	0.042	4	39.67%	3	0.125	6	17.98%
2	Morgan Stanley	0.016	2	15.21%	4	0.089	7	12.79%
3	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	0.016	1	14.77%	1	0.200	9	28.69%
4	Credit Suisse AG, Nassau Branch	0.012	3	11.72%
5	Citigroup Inc.	0.011	1	9.98%	5	0.076	11	10.95%
6	Royal Bank of Canada	0.004	2	3.98%	12	0.001	1	0.14%
7	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	0.002	1	2.00%	9	0.007	1	1.08%
8	JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA	0.002	1	1.53%
9	Barclays Bank plc	0.001	1	1.14%	2	0.142	1	20.42%
	Total	0.105	16	0.696	48
	Average size:	0.007	0.015
Single stock structured products, no ETNs, by issuer, year to date
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount No.	Share	Rank	Amount No.	Share
1	Barclays Bank plc	0.243	53	19.11%	2	0.555	110	14.31%
2	UBS AG, London Branch	0.210	351	16.54%	3	0.539	751	13.88%
3	Credit Suisse AG, London Branch	0.126	59	9.93%	8	0.178	74	4.58%
4	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	0.117	61	9.20%	1	0.978	242	25.19%
5	Royal Bank of Canada	0.093	33	7.28%	4	0.379	75	9.76%
6	JPMorgan Chase Financial Co. LLC	0.080	28	6.25%
7	HSBC USA Inc.	0.073	22	5.71%	6	0.258	42	6.66%
8	Bank of America Corp.	0.068	5	5.34%	10	0.147	4	3.79%
9	GS Finance Corp. (Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.)	0.056	19	4.39%
10	Morgan Stanley	0.044	10	3.47%	5	0.301	55	7.77%
	Total	1.272	682	3.881	1478
	Average size:	0.002	0.003
Prospect News Structured Products Rankings

Criteria

• The tables include all dollar-denominated offerings sold in the United States as public, Rule 144A or similar deals reported to Prospect News.

• Offerings are included in the time period in which they price.

• Amounts are based on the total sales price (face amount multiplied by the offering price). The full amount is credited to the lead manager. For multiple managers, the total value is divided equally among all the firms.

• Each tranche is counted as a separate deal.

• Notes are included that convert into or are linked to one or more stocks, indexes, commodities, currencies, interest rates or other assets.

• Interest-rate products with a structured coupon but no underlier, such as step-up notes, step-down notes, fixed-to-floating notes and capped floaters, are listed separately; they are not included in overall totals. Agencies are included in this category.

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