BofA Merrill Lynch remains top U.S. structured products agent for year to date

By Emma Trincal

New York, July 31 – BofA Merrill Lynch is still by far the No. 1 agent of U.S. structured products for the year with $7.03 billion brought to market in 225 offerings, or 28.50% of the total volume so far this year, according to preliminary data compiled by Prospect News.

Volume this year has grown 10.5% to $24.61 billion from $22.26 billion, the data showed. These figures do not include exchange-traded notes.

Agents’ increased volume coincided with an increase in the number of deals, up 11% to 5,200 from 4,697.

The No. 2 and No. 3 agents kept their respective rankings from last year: JPMorgan was No. 2 with $4.30 billion sold in 814 offerings, or 17.45% of the total; UBS held its third position with 1,966 deals totaling $3.41 billion, or 13.84% of the total. UBS saw the number of its offerings decline by 23% from last year.

Barclays and Morgan Stanley swapped rankings. Barclays rose two notches to the fourth position with $1.88 billion, knocking Morgan Stanley down two notches into the sixth slot with $1.57 billion.

Goldman Sachs kept its fifth ranking with $1.80 billion.

July

July was a strong month for BofA Merrill Lynch, which not only kept its strong lead in the league tables but also increased its market share from last year. The agent sold 38 deals in July totaling $1.21 billion, nearly 37% of the months’ total volume of $3.29 billion. Last year, BofA Merrill Lynch accounted for 31.5% of July’s volume of sales.

For the year, BofA Merrill Lynch’s penetration rate remains stable, falling by less than one percentage point from 29.23% in the first seven months of 2013 to 28.55% this year.

Equity indexes

BofA Merrill Lynch’s volume is related to its top ranking in equity indexes, the best-selling asset class. With $5.46 billion of equity index-linked note sold in 163 deals, BofA Merrill Lynch commands 43% of this market. JPMorgan rose to the second spot, from fourth last year, pushing UBS down two notches.

While equity indexes remain the asset class of choice, accounting for 51.5% of total volume, the business in this category of products recorded a muted growth of 3.5% from last year’s $12.24 billion.

Strong stocks

This sluggish growth is in contrast with single stocks, which saw their volume surge by 38% this year to date, making this asset class the fastest-growing for the year.

UBS remained the top single-stock agent this year. This agent sold $2.16 billion, seeing a volume pickup of 38.5% from last year. This agent’s tendency to generate volume through a greater number of offerings than its competitors was reconfirmed. The number of UBS’ stock deals grew to 1,727 from 1,562, a 10.5% increase. Despite that, the bank’s market share in this asset class remained flat at 31.65%.

BofA Merrill Lynch remained No. 2, and JPMorgan took the third slot from Morgan Stanley, which fell to the fifth position.

Commodities flat

More surprising was the volume trend for commodity-linked notes issuance. Month after month, this asset class saw a solid decline. As of the end of July, however, volume is flat at $1.16 billion versus $1.15 billion last year. This is the result of JPMorgan’s emergence as the No. 1 agent with $716 million, which is three-fold more than its volume last year. JPMorgan with 35 deals captured 62% of this market versus 20% last year.

JPMorgan priced three large commodities deals in excess of $100 million this year, which is part of the explanation.

One for $156 million based on the J.P. Morgan Enhanced Beta Select Backwardation Alternative Benchmark Total Return index priced July 11.

In May, this agent priced a $127 million deal based on futures contracts on WTI crude oil on the behalf of Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch. In April, Barclays issued a $104.5 million offering linked to the same underlying, also distributed by JPMorgan.

Forex, rates

JPMorgan remained the leader in foreign exchange. It brought to market 71% of the volume in this tiny market, which has continued to shrink with issuance down by half to $255 million from last year.

Goldman Sachs, which was the top agent in interest rates last year, has now fallen to the fifth position, leaving Citigroup to fill the No. 1 spot with 31.85% of the total in 20 deals. Overall, agents sold $1.27 billion of interest rate-linked notes, a 32% increase from last year, making interest rates the second fastest-growing asset class after stocks.

The interest rates category, however, does not include synthetic structured coupon deals, which comprise step-ups, fixed-to-floating notes and capped floaters. These products, which are not part of the league tables totals, are counted separately.

The top agent for structured coupons remained First Tennessee with $1.96 billion, or 7.67% of the total, in 106 deals.

These lightly structured notes have continued to see their volume decline this year, falling 28% to $25.60 billion from $35.51 billion. The number of offerings has declined 8% to 1,033 from 1,125.

Top issuers

The league tables for issuers show JPMorgan Chase & Co. as No. 1 this year, followed by Barclays Bank plc. The top issuer last year was Bank of America Corp., which is now down to the bottom in the tenth ranking, a move that reflects this agent’s comfort in using a variety of issuers for its deals.

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

2013 Comparables

	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Bank of America	7.025	225	28.55%	1	6.507	209	29.23%
2	JPMorgan	4.295	814	17.45%	2	3.114	751	13.99%
3	UBS	3.406	1966	13.84%	3	2.552	1523	11.46%
4	Barclays	1.877	326	7.63%	6	1.109	346	4.98%
5	Goldman Sachs	1.802	291	7.32%	5	2.121	296	9.53%
6	Morgan Stanley	1.566	234	6.36%	4	2.501	360	11.23%
7	Credit Suisse	0.917	260	3.73%	10	0.721	225	3.24%
8	RBC	0.894	351	3.63%	9	0.742	350	3.33%
9	HSBC	0.783	438	3.18%	7	0.790	278	3.55%
10	Citigroup	0.711	114	2.89%	8	0.753	108	3.38%
	Total	24.609	5200	22.264	4697
	Average size:	0.005	0.005
All structured products, no ETNS, by agent, July
					2013 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Bank of America	1.211	38	36.82%	1	0.950	25	31.54%
2	JPMorgan	0.699	122	21.27%	2	0.435	107	14.46%
3	UBS	0.267	237	8.13%	3	0.420	213	13.94%
4	Barclays	0.239	38	7.28%	5	0.231	39	7.66%
5	Morgan Stanley	0.188	30	5.72%	4	0.343	42	11.38%
6	RBC	0.149	47	4.54%	8	0.075	49	2.50%
7	Goldman Sachs	0.122	28	3.69%	6	0.154	28	5.12%
8	Deutsche Bank	0.105	15	3.20%	14	0.033	4	1.11%
9	Credit Suisse	0.094	29	2.87%	10	0.070	29	2.31%
10	HSBC	0.083	64	2.54%	7	0.077	34	2.54%
	Total	3.288	676	3.011	601
	Average size:	0.005	0.005
All structured products, by agent, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Bank of America	7.025	225	22.72%	1	6.507	209	20.02%
2	UBS	5.108	1975	16.52%	4	3.902	1529	12.00%
3	Credit Suisse	4.365	691	14.12%	2	5.942	766	18.28%
4	JPMorgan	4.295	814	13.89%	5	3.114	751	9.58%
5	Barclays	2.647	333	8.56%	3	4.437	355	13.65%
6	Goldman Sachs	1.802	291	5.83%	7	2.121	296	6.53%
7	Morgan Stanley	1.566	234	5.06%	6	2.527	361	7.78%
8	RBC	0.898	352	2.90%	10	0.742	350	2.28%
9	Citigroup	0.816	116	2.64%	9	0.753	108	2.32%
10	HSBC	0.783	438	2.53%	8	0.790	278	2.43%
	Total	30.925	5689	32.499	5294
	Average size:	0.005	0.006
ETNS, by agent, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Credit Suisse	3.448	431	54.60%	1	5.220	541	51.00%
2	UBS	1.702	9	26.94%	3	1.350	6	13.19%
3	Barclays	0.770	7	12.19%	2	3.328	9	32.52%
4	Nuveen	0.150	37	2.37%	5	0.132	38	1.29%
5	Citigroup	0.105	2	1.67%
6	RBS	0.074	1	1.17%	7	0.018	1	0.18%
7	Deutsche Bank	0.064	1	1.01%	4	0.160	1	1.56%
8	RBC	0.004	1	0.06%
	Total	6.316	489	10.235	597
	Average size:	0.013	0.017
Commodity structured products, no ETNS, by agent, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan	0.716	35	61.79%	2	0.236	19	20.46%
2	Barclays	0.118	12	10.18%	5	0.118	27	10.21%
3	Goldman Sachs	0.100	1	8.63%	4	0.139	5	12.02%
4	Morgan Stanley	0.095	19	8.19%	6	0.106	19	9.20%
5	Bank of America	0.069	5	5.95%	1	0.304	24	26.33%
6	UBS	0.036	9	3.13%	8	0.033	9	2.85%
7	Deutsche Bank	0.022	4	1.86%	3	0.171	21	14.81%
8	Citigroup	0.003	1	0.26%	7	0.034	3	2.98%
	Total	1.158	86	1.153	132
	Average size:	0.013	0.009
Equity index structured products, no ETNS, by agent, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Bank of America	5.464	163	43.13%	1	4.963	137	40.55%
2	JPMorgan	1.731	278	13.66%	4	1.267	212	10.35%
3	Goldman Sachs	1.221	217	9.64%	2	1.441	237	11.78%
4	UBS	0.911	157	7.19%	5	0.664	97	5.43%
5	Barclays	0.683	128	5.39%	8	0.396	106	3.23%
6	Morgan Stanley	0.642	104	5.07%	3	1.384	218	11.31%
7	HSBC	0.535	301	4.22%	6	0.511	171	4.17%
8	Credit Suisse	0.520	185	4.10%	7	0.484	149	3.95%
9	RBC	0.364	69	2.88%	9	0.333	66	2.72%
10	Deutsche Bank	0.312	43	2.46%	14	0.046	7	0.38%
	Total	12.668	1716	12.240	1553
	Average size:	0.007	0.008
Foreign exchange structured products, no ETNS, by agent, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan	0.181	37	71.11%	1	0.219	28	43.55%
2	Goldman Sachs	0.045	16	17.61%	3	0.086	25	17.13%
3	Bank of America	0.021	3	8.19%	4	0.034	6	6.82%
4	HSBC	0.003	1	1.32%	2	0.116	18	23.13%
5	UBS	0.003	1	0.99%	5	0.027	9	5.36%
6	Morgan Stanley	0.002	1	0.79%	7	0.008	3	1.69%
	Total	0.255	59	0.503	95
	Average size:	0.004	0.005
Interest rate structured products, no ETNS, by agent, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Citigroup	0.403	20	31.84%	2	0.147	8	15.30%
2	Barclays	0.191	15	15.11%	3	0.114	13	11.89%
3	JPMorgan	0.150	16	11.83%	10	0.023	5	2.37%
4	Scotia	0.103	10	8.12%	7	0.051	4	5.37%
5	Goldman Sachs	0.092	22	7.28%	1	0.312	15	32.57%
6	Morgan Stanley	0.071	4	5.64%	5	0.071	6	7.41%
7	Wells Fargo	0.061	4	4.85%	13	0.004	1	0.47%
8	RBC	0.061	6	4.79%	12	0.014	2	1.43%
9	Nomura	0.044	4	3.51%
10	HSBC	0.044	6	3.49%
	Total	1.267	114	0.958	71
	Average size:	0.011	0.013
Single stock structured products, no ETNS, by agent, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	UBS	2.162	1727	31.65%	1	1.562	1334	31.52%
2	Bank of America	1.296	39	18.96%	2	0.934	29	18.84%
3	JPMorgan	0.971	316	14.21%	4	0.579	301	11.67%
4	Barclays	0.725	126	10.61%	5	0.306	151	6.18%
5	Morgan Stanley	0.542	77	7.93%	3	0.705	78	14.23%
6	RBC	0.337	244	4.93%	6	0.300	254	6.05%
7	Credit Suisse	0.276	35	4.04%	10	0.085	13	1.72%
8	Goldman Sachs	0.191	14	2.79%	9	0.107	5	2.16%
9	Citigroup	0.111	39	1.62%	7	0.212	35	4.28%
10	Wells Fargo	0.101	4	1.48%	8	0.128	10	259.00%
	Total	6.833	2655	4.957	2228
	Average size:	0.003	0.002
Interest rate products with structured coupons (not included above), by agent, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	First Tennessee	1.964	106	7.67%	1	3.703	118	10.43%
2	Stifel	1.448	71	5.66%	5	1.058	43	2.98%
3	Barclays	1.406	41	5.49%	2	1.831	46	5.16%
4	Incapital	1.341	81	5.24%	4	1.260	56	3.55%
5	Morgan Stanley	1.216	57	4.75%	3	1.718	58	4.84%
6	Raymond James	1.198	88	4.68%	7	0.928	54	2.61%
7	Mesirow	1.166	63	4.56%	8	0.925	48	2.60%
8	RBC	1.143	64	4.47%	15	0.602	32	1.70%
9	Vining	1.135	81	4.43%	9	0.796	50	2.24%
10	Hapoalim	0.910	51	3.56%	11	0.680	28	1.91%
	Total	25.596	1033	35.514	1125
	Average size:	0.025	0.032
Interest rate products with structured coupons (not included above), no agencies, by agent, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Barclays	0.608	17	35.48%	3	0.351	38	11.71%
2	RBC	0.371	34	21.67%	4	0.342	22	11.40%
3	Goldman Sachs	0.198	24	11.57%	2	0.462	28	15.41%
4	Scotia	0.196	20	11.41%	9	0.091	8	3.02%
5	Morgan Stanley	0.087	4	5.10%	1	0.573	11	19.09%
6	SunTrust	0.075	1	4.38%	8	0.123	7	4.09%
7	Citigroup	0.070	14	4.10%	10	0.067	9	2.24%
8	Wells Fargo	0.033	4	1.95%	7	0.238	17	7.93%
9	JPMorgan	0.022	9	1.28%	5	0.328	40	10.94%
10	HSBC	0.019	4	1.08%	11	0.064	8	2.14%
	Total	1.714	146	3.001	203
	Average size:	0.012	0.015
All structured products, no ETNs, by issuer, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 3.280	717	13.33%	2	2.672	722	12.00%
2	Barclays Bank plc	3.140	443	12.76%	4	2.219	437	9.97%
3	Credit Suisse AG, London Branch 2.944	342	11.97%	22	0.046	14	0.20%
4	Royal Bank of Canada 2.246	489	9.13%	7	1.516	440	6.81%
5	HSBC USA Inc.	2.116	512	8.60%	6	1.971	356	8.85%
6	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	2.078	310	8.45%	5	2.110	298	9.48%
7	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	1.934	251	7.86%	10	0.954	137	4.29%
8	UBS AG, London Branch 1.720	1604	7.00%	9	1.104	1209	4.96%
9	Morgan Stanley	1.550	231	6.30%	3	2.533	368	11.38%
10	Bank of America Corp. 1.424	51	5.79%	1	3.517	90	15.80%
	Total	24.609	5200	22.264	4697
	Average size:	0.005	0.005
All structured products, no ETNs, by issuer, July
					2013 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	HSBC USA Inc.	0.537	80	16.32%	4	0.292	47	9.71%
2	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 0.536	90	16.30%	3	0.320	102	10.62%
3	Barclays Bank plc	0.529	47	16.09%	5	0.273	57	9.08%
4	Royal Bank of Canada 0.395	65	12.01%	8	0.157	58	5.21%
5	Bank of America Corp. 0.276	8	8.38%	1	0.622	12	20.64%
6	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	0.189	45	5.75%	6	0.209	19	6.94%
7	Morgan Stanley	0.188	30	5.72%	2	0.329	40	10.91%
8	UBS AG, London Branch 0.165	217	5.01%	7	0.196	166	6.50%
9	Credit Suisse AG, London Branch 0.160	34	4.86%	13	0.046	14	1.51%
10	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	0.122	28	3.69%	9	0.154	28	5.12%
	Total	3.288	676	3.011	601
	Average size:	0.005	0.005
All structured products, by issuer, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Barclays Bank plc	3.909	450	12.64%	2	5.547	446	17.07%
2	Credit Suisse AG, Nassau Branch 3.681	440	11.90%	1	6.488	805	19.96%
3	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 3.280	717	10.61%	4	2.672	722	8.22%
4	UBS AG, London Branch 3.020	1611	9.76%	8	1.754	1211	5.40%
5	Credit Suisse AG, London Branch 2.944	342	9.52%	24	0.046	14	0.14%
6	Royal Bank of Canada 2.250	490	7.28%	9	1.516	440	4.66%
7	HSBC USA Inc.	2.116	512	6.84%	7	1.971	356	6.06%
8	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	2.078	310	6.72%	6	2.110	298	6.49%
9	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	1.998	252	6.46%	10	1.114	138	3.43%
10	Morgan Stanley	1.550	231	5.01%	5	2.560	369	7.88%
	Total	30.925	5689	32.499	5294
	Average size:	0.005	0.006
Commodity structured products, no ETNS, by issuer, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 0.339	19	29.27%	2	0.207	16	17.99%
2	Barclays Bank plc	0.314	16	27.14%	1	0.212	33	18.40%
3	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	0.213	18	18.40%	4	0.176	22	15.24%
4	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	0.100	1	8.63%	5	0.129	4	11.19%
5	Morgan Stanley	0.095	19	8.19%	6	0.106	19	9.20%
6	Bank of America Corp. 0.058	4	5.00%	3	0.196	16	16.98%
7	UBS AG, London Branch 0.025	7	2.15%	7	0.032	8	2.79%
8	AB Svensk Exportkredit 0.011	1	0.95%	11	0.010	2	0.89%
9	Citigroup Inc.	0.003	1	0.26%	9	0.022	2	1.93%
	Total	1.158	86	1.153	132
	Average size:	0.013	0.009
Equity index structured products, no ETNS, by issuer, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Credit Suisse AG, London Branch 2.654	254	20.95%	17	0.045	13	0.37%
2	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	1.476	229	11.66%	3	1.436	238	11.73%
3	HSBC USA Inc.	1.472	345	11.62%	2	1.447	224	11.82%
4	Royal Bank of Canada 1.254	117	9.90%	8	0.503	80	4.11%
5	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 1.091	239	8.61%	6	0.860	171	7.03%
6	Bank of America Corp. 1.050	33	8.29%	1	2.940	61	24.02%
7	Barclays Bank plc	1.037	148	8.19%	7	0.791	109	6.46%
8	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	0.957	88	7.55%	9	0.336	30	2.74%
9	Morgan Stanley	0.635	103	5.02%	4	1.428	222	11.67%
10	UBS AG, London Branch 0.406	75	3.20%	10	0.326	55	2.66%
	Total	12.668	1716	12.240	1553
	Average size:	0.007	0.008
Foreign exchange structured products, no ETNS, by issuer, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 0.118	22	46.32%	8	0.004	2	0.82%
2	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	0.056	12	22.11%	2	0.138	14	27.42%
3	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	0.054	20	21.27%	3	0.090	27	17.88%
4	Bank of America Corp. 0.012	1	4.82%	6	0.009	2	1.86%
5	Barclays Bank plc	0.009	2	3.37%	4	0.027	6	5.33%
6	HSBC USA Inc.	0.003	1	1.32%	1	0.209	29	41.54%
7	Morgan Stanley	0.002	1	0.79%	7	0.008	3	1.69%
	Total	0.255	59	0.503	95
	Average size:	0.004	0.005
Interest rate structured products, no ETNS, by issuer, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Citigroup Inc.	0.403	20	31.84%	2	0.097	7	10.16%
2	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 0.150	16	11.83%	13	0.017	4	1.75%
3	Barclays Bank plc	0.147	11	11.63%	4	0.073	9	7.57%
4	Bank of Nova Scotia 0.103	10	8.12%	6	0.051	4	5.37%
5	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	0.092	22	7.28%	1	0.312	15	32.57%
6	Morgan Stanley	0.071	4	5.64%	7	0.051	5	5.32%
7	Wells Fargo & Co.	0.061	4	4.85%	16	0.004	1	0.47%
8	Royal Bank of Canada 0.061	6	4.79%	14	0.014	2	1.43%
9	HSBC USA Inc.	0.048	7	3.75%
10	Nomura America Finance, LLC 0.044	4	3.51%
	Total	1.267	114	0.958	71
	Average size:	0.011	0.013
Single stock structured products, no ETNS, by issuer, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Barclays Bank plc	1.394	213	20.40%	2	0.840	230	16.94%
2	UBS AG, London Branch 1.150	1473	16.82%	5	0.622	1096	12.55%
3	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 1.065	298	15.58%	3	0.801	346	16.17%
4	Royal Bank of Canada 0.732	320	10.71%	1	0.881	324	17.78%
5	Morgan Stanley	0.542	77	7.93%	4	0.733	84	14.79%
6	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	0.490	101	7.18%	7	0.188	51	3.79%
7	HSBC USA Inc.	0.353	35	5.17%	12	0.095	14	1.91%
8	Bank of America Corp. 0.276	8	4.04%	6	0.231	5	4.66%
9	Credit Suisse AG, Nassau Branch 0.213	5	3.12%	11	0.105	20	2.11%
10	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	0.203	17	2.97%	10	0.107	5	2.16%
	Total	6.833	2655	4.957	2228
	Average size:	0.003	0.002
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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