Goldman Sachs reaches top ranking this year with top deal; volume already down 12%

By Emma Trincal

New York, Feb. 3 – Goldman Sachs took the first slot in January’s league tables while Bank of America ranked second, which is very unusual for a firm that is almost always No. 1 in any given month, according to data compiled by Prospect News.

For this first month of 2016, Goldman Sachs priced $1.37 billion in 62 deals, capturing 31% of the total volume for the month.

But this lead is due to the pricing of a record-size deal last week in the amount of $1.07 billion and therefore may not mark a new trend, at least not yet.

The Goldman Sachs notes linked to a basket of international equity benchmarks represented the second largest deal ever to price since UBS AG sold a $2 billion reverse convertible 10 years ago, according to the data.

Goldman Sachs moved up from the No. 3 slot in January 2015. A year ago, it priced $1.06 billion in 56 deals.

Bank of America priced 41 deals totaling $993 million. It represented 22.2% of the total.

Down one slot from last year, JPMorgan was No. 3 with $754 million priced in 161 deals.

Barclays was next, moving up one notch from a year ago, while BMO Capital Markets also jumped up one level to the fifth slot.

UBS

One of the most notable decliners was UBS. This agent, which was ranked No. 4 last year with $472 million, has seen its volume decline by 60% to $189 million. The decline has been felt for several months if not years, according to the data. It is partly because UBS’ strength was its high number of deals, and as those have been plummeting so has the volume. A year ago, UBS priced 252 offerings. Last month, this number fell to 81.

Lackluster volume

The total volume for January is already showing signs of weakness compared to one year ago at $4.47 billion, a 12% decline from $5.07 billion in January 2015. According to the data, such decline is unusual at this time of year.

The month of January in general has been trending up over the past 10 years with only two exceptions four and seven years ago.

In January 2012, volume dropped a third from January 2011 to $2.90 billion.

But the worst decline hit in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis in January 2009 when volume plummeted 78% $1.56 billion from $6.97 billion a year before.

Commodities

One aspect of this year’s early weakness, which is a continuation of issuance trends seen since August, is the result of market conditions. Commodities are a case in point.

While a year ago, 26 commodity-linked note offerings priced for a modest sum of $117 million, this year only five deals came out in the distressed asset class totaling $10 million. JPMorgan captured two-thirds of the volume in this increasingly shrinking market.

Equity, FX

Given its $1.07 billion deal, Goldman Sachs is now the top agent for equity index-linked notes with $1.37 billion. Bank of America, which is almost always the top agent for these products, is now No. 2 with $907 million.

Without the unusually large deal, however, Bank of America’s lead would be well established.

Despite heavy action in global currency markets, no FX deals printed last month. This asset class is always the smallest in size, but not seeing any deal, even small ones, is highly uncommon, according to past reports.

Single-stock issuance is not encouraging. Volume last month fell two-thirds to $244 million from $720 million. The number of deal is also smaller, falling to 115 from 282.

JPMorgan took the first slot in this asset class, while the former winner, UBS, is now No. 3.

Rates

Appetite for rates is weak, the data showed. Only three deals priced for a total of $19 million. Citigroup remained No. 1 with $11 million.

The interest rate category used in these league tables does not include some lightly structured plain-vanilla notes, which Prospect News calls interest rates with structured coupons.

Those, which include step-up notes, step-down notes, fixed-to-floating notes and capped floaters, are listed and counted separately. They are not included in the overall totals.

First Tennessee was No. 1 in this category.

The market size for structured coupons is shrinking too. Volume has fallen 42% to $2.46 billion from $4.27 billion a year ago.

For the issuers’ league table, the top three banks have kept their respective rankings of last year. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is No. 1 with $1.18 billion. It is followed by Barclays Bank plc and Credit Suisse AG, London Branch.

All structured products, no ETNS, by agent, January

2015 Comparables

	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Goldman Sachs	1.373	62	30.73%	3	1.057	56	20.85%
2	Bank of America	0.993	41	22.23%	1	1.205	35	23.78%
3	JPMorgan	0.754	161	16.89%	2	1.147	145	22.64%
4	Barclays	0.305	62	6.82%	5	0.317	41	6.25%
5	BMO	0.195	23	4.36%	6	0.227	6	4.48%
6	UBS	0.189	81	4.23%	4	0.472	252	9.32%
7	Credit Suisse	0.122	51	2.72%	8	0.141	38	2.79%
8	Morgan Stanley	0.113	25	2.54%	7	0.217	48	4.28%
9	Citigroup	0.113	25	2.53%	11	0.048	13	0.95%
10	Deutsche Bank	0.091	13	2.03%	12	0.043	9	0.85%
	Total	4.466	632	5.068	727
	Average size:	0.007	0.007
All structured products, by agent, January
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Credit Suisse	1.706	154	28.14%	4	0.919	126	15.70%
2	Goldman Sachs	1.373	62	22.65%	3	1.057	56	18.06%
3	Bank of America	0.993	41	16.38%	1	1.205	35	20.59%
4	JPMorgan	0.754	161	12.45%	2	1.147	145	19.61%
5	Barclays	0.305	62	5.02%	6	0.317	41	5.41%
6	BMO	0.195	23	3.21%	7	0.227	6	3.88%
7	UBS	0.189	81	3.12%	5	0.472	252	8.07%
8	Morgan Stanley	0.113	25	1.87%	8	0.217	48	3.71%
9	Citigroup	0.113	25	1.86%	11	0.048	13	0.83%
10	Deutsche Bank	0.091	13	1.50%	12	0.043	9	0.74%
	Total	6.061	742	5.852	822
	Average size:	0.008	0.007
ETNS, by agent, January
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Credit Suisse	1.584	103	99.36%	1	0.777	88	99.14%
2	Nuveen	0.010	7	0.64%	2	0.007	7	0.86%
	Total	1.594	110	0.784	95
	Average size:	0.014	0.008
Commodity structured products, no ETNS, by agent, January
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan	0.006	3	62.70%	1	0.042	10	35.80%
2	UBS	0.003	1	31.36%	7	0.001	1	0.58%
3	Morgan Stanley	0.001	1	5.93%	3	0.029	7	24.86%
	Total	0.010	5	0.117	26
	Average size:	0.002	0.004
Equity index structured products, no ETNS, by agent, January
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Goldman Sachs	1.367	59	36.68%	2	0.925	50	25.81%
2	Bank of America	0.907	37	24.33%	1	1.061	26	29.61%
3	JPMorgan	0.629	113	16.86%	3	0.857	60	23.90%
4	Barclays	0.267	45	7.17%	5	0.179	26	5.00%
5	Credit Suisse	0.101	40	2.72%	6	0.115	27	3.21%
6	Citigroup	0.096	19	2.57%	10	0.017	6	0.47%
7	UBS	0.073	13	1.97%	4	0.239	36	6.68%
8	Morgan Stanley	0.072	13	1.94%	8	0.064	17	1.79%
9	Deutsche Bank	0.070	11	1.87%	11	0.006	3	0.18%
10	HSBC	0.050	26	1.35%	7	0.073	34	2.03%
	Total	3.728	416	3.585	300
	Average size:	0.009	0.012
Foreign exchange structured products, no ETNS, by agent, January
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
	Total	0.000	0	0.034	6
	Average size:	0.006
Interest rate structured products, no ETNS, by agent, January
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Citigroup	0.011	1	56.23%	1	0.009	1	37.92%
2	Wells Fargo	0.007	1	38.41%
3	Morgan Stanley	0.001	1	5.36%	2	0.007	1	29.49%
	Total	0.019	3	0.024	6
	Average size:	0.006	0.004
Single stock structured products, no ETNS, by agent, January
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan	0.074	30	30.32%	2	0.164	46	22.79%
2	Bank of America	0.071	3	28.87%	4	0.090	4	12.44%
3	UBS	0.031	47	12.62%	1	0.201	191	27.94%
4	Barclays	0.017	8	6.88%	5	0.082	8	11.34%
5	RBC	0.015	6	6.17%	7	0.029	9	4.03%
6	Morgan Stanley	0.015	5	6.09%	6	0.042	13	5.88%
7	HSBC	0.009	3	3.57%	10	0.000	1	0.06%
8	Credit Suisse	0.005	8	2.12%	9	0.008	5	1.09%
9	Citigroup	0.004	3	1.65%	8	0.013	4	1.86%
10	Goldman Sachs	0.004	1	1.44%	3	0.091	1	12.57%
	Total	0.244	115	0.720	282
	Average size:	0.002	0.003
Interest rate products with structured coupons (not included above), by agent, January
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	First Tennessee	0.246	11	10.01%	4	0.265	13	6.20%
2	Piper Jaffray	0.177	7	7.23%	11	0.127	13	2.98%
3	Multi-Bank	0.160	10	6.51%
4	Cantor	0.110	1	4.48%	14	0.104	7	2.44%
5	Mizuho	0.107	3	4.38%	26	0.033	2	0.78%
6	Incapital	0.087	5	3.56%	10	0.155	14	3.63%
6	Vining	0.087	10	3.56%	2	0.354	19	8.28%
8	RBC	0.086	5	3.51%	36	0.022	3	0.53%
9	Finacorp	0.079	6	3.22%	9	0.158	17	3.68%
10	Mesirow	0.075	4	3.05%	17	0.085	6	1.99%
	Total	2.456	95	4.275	148
	Average size:	0.026	0.029
Interest rate products with structured coupons (not included above), no agencies, by agent, January
					2015 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	RBC	0.036	3	44.72%	4	0.010	2	11.90%
2	Bank of America	0.019	1	23.73%
3	Wells Fargo	0.014	2	17.40%
4	BMO	0.007	1	8.59%
5	TD	0.004	2	4.94%	2	0.018	3	21.60%
6	Barclays	0.001	1	0.62%	5	0.005	1	5.95%
	Total	0.081	10	0.084	13
	Average size:	0.008	0.006
All structured products, no ETNs, by issuer, January
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	1.181	20	26.45%	1	1.092	64	21.56%
2	Barclays Bank plc	0.517	73	11.58%	2	1.020	55	20.12%
3	Credit Suisse AG, London Branch 0.348	73	7.80%	3	0.711	77	14.03%
4	Bank of America Corp. 0.333	9	7.46%	5	0.475	9	9.38%
5	Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce 0.323	15	7.23%
6	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 0.322	96	7.20%	4	0.477	115	9.41%
7	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	0.285	28	6.38%	11	0.107	28	2.12%
8	Bank of Montreal	0.195	23	4.36%	7	0.227	6	4.48%
9	GS Finance Corp. (Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.)	0.191	42	4.28%
10	HSBC USA Inc.	0.184	50	4.11%	6	0.230	64	4.53%
	Total	4.466	632	5.068	727
	Average size:	0.007	0.007
All structured products, by issuer, January
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Credit Suisse AG, Nassau Branch 1.593	108	26.28%	3	0.800	91	13.67%
2	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	1.181	20	19.49%	1	1.092	64	18.67%
3	Barclays Bank plc	0.517	73	8.54%	2	1.020	55	17.42%
4	Credit Suisse AG, London Branch 0.348	73	5.75%	4	0.711	77	12.15%
5	Bank of America Corp. 0.333	9	5.49%	6	0.475	9	8.13%
6	Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce 0.323	15	5.33%
7	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 0.322	96	5.31%	5	0.477	115	8.15%
8	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	0.285	28	4.70%	12	0.107	28	1.84%
9	Bank of Montreal	0.195	23	3.21%	8	0.227	6	3.88%
10	GS Finance Corp. (Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.)	0.191	42	3.16%
	Total	6.061	742	5.852	822
	Average size:	0.008	0.007
Commodity structured products, no ETNS, by issuer, January
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 0.006	3	62.70%	3	0.025	6	21.42%
2	UBS AG, London Branch 0.003	1	31.36%	5	0.010	4	8.62%
3	Morgan Stanley	0.001	1	5.93%	2	0.029	7	24.86%
	Total	0.010	5	0.117	26
	Average size:	0.002	0.004
Equity index structured products, no ETNS, by issuer, January
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	1.181	20	31.69%	1	0.956	56	26.68%
2	Barclays Bank plc	0.413	54	11.07%	2	0.821	32	22.91%
3	Bank of America Corp. 0.325	8	8.72%	4	0.443	5	12.37%
4	Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce 0.323	15	8.66%
5	Credit Suisse AG, London Branch 0.318	54	8.53%	3	0.655	54	18.27%
6	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	0.245	23	6.58%	10	0.021	7	0.58%
7	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 0.206	52	5.53%	5	0.216	45	6.02%
8	GS Finance Corp. (Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.)	0.186	39	4.99%
9	HSBC USA Inc.	0.157	35	4.21%	6	0.171	38	4.78%
10	Citigroup Inc.	0.086	17	2.30%	11	0.017	6	0.47%
	Total	3.728	416	3.585	300
	Average size:	0.009	0.012
Foreign exchange structured products, no ETNS, by issuer, January
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
	Total	0.000	0	0.034	6
	Average size:	0.006
Interest rate structured products, no ETNS, by issuer, January
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Citigroup Inc.	0.011	1	56.23%	1	0.009	1	37.92%
2	Wells Fargo & Co.	0.007	1	38.41%
3	Morgan Stanley	0.001	1	5.36%	2	0.007	1	29.49%
	Total	0.019	3	0.024	6
	Average size:	0.006	0.004
Single stock structured products, no ETNS, by issuer, January
					2015 Comparables
	Issuer	Amount	No.	Share	Rank Amount	No.	Share
1	Barclays Bank plc	0.069	9	28.19%	2	0.119	14	16.55%
2	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 0.065	27	26.75%	1	0.162	39	22.54%
3	UBS AG, London Branch 0.029	46	11.95%	5	0.079	146	10.97%
4	Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch	0.019	3	7.58%	6	0.042	14	5.87%
5	Royal Bank of Canada 0.015	6	6.17%	3	0.101	25	13.99%
6	Morgan Stanley	0.014	4	5.68%	7	0.041	12	5.74%
7	HSBC USA Inc.	0.010	4	4.20%	8	0.039	11	5.39%
8	Bank of America Corp. 0.008	1	3.21%
9	Credit Suisse AG, London Branch 0.008	11	3.18%	9	0.033	16	4.53%
10	Citigroup Inc.	0.004	3	1.65%	10	0.013	4	1.86%
	Total	0.244	115	0.720	282
	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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