Higher volatility and greater dispersion in the market has tested the preparedness and agility of structured product dealer platforms. In 2018, BNP Paribas further enhanced its ‘SMART Derivatives’ platform by improving the client experience through the continuous expansion of the universe of payoffs and underliers, and enhanced user-friendliness via various new tools catering to private banks’ specific needs.

For example, the platform is able to provide portfolio analytics for the overview of client exposure to a specific market of payoff structures, customised alerts designed by the user, and calendars to remind investors of upcoming events.

And given the increasing importance of being able to efficiently manage secondary markets and the heterogeneous nature of private banks’ needs and processes, BNP Paribas developed a set of highly personalised tools for its post-trade module for clients to manage their portfolios amid rapidly changing market conditions.

“SMART Derivatives is the one-stop-shop platform covering the full product lifecycle, including idea generation, pricing, trading, and portfolio management,” said William Shek, head of EQD e-distribution, global markets APAC at BNP Paribas.

“The flexibility of the platform has allowed BNP Paribas to stand out among its competitors with the wide payoff range together with different value-added features such as scheduled daily runs or ‘Basket Optimiser’. On top of that, SMART Derivatives also provides a single deal depository for clients to monitor the product performance, perform secondary market actions, and access all lifecycle notifications.”

The results speak for themselves – the platform has executed a spectacular volume of pricing requests and trades and commands a dominant and growing market share of private banks in Asia. In turn, the industry has responded by selecting BNP Paribas as the provider of 2018’s Best Structured Product Platform – Single Dealer.