Bank Julius Baer to Join Contineo Network

Contineo continues growth with new buy-side client, Bank Julius Baer, joining the ranks of its existing sell-side subscribers, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan and Societe Generale.Hong Kong, March 6, 2015:

Contineo, the fastest growing and first industry-backed open messaging network for equity-linked structured products in Asia, announced today its newest buy-side subscriber, Bank Julius Baer, the leading Swiss private banking group.

Julius Baer will use Contineo’s web-based interface to access multiple-issuers of structured products starting in July this year in Asia. The connection is expected to help Julius Baer speed up the pricing and order process for structured products.

“We are pleased to join Contineo and to benefit from this industry backed initiative, as it aims to enhance the execution of equity-linked structured products in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Roger Meier, Head of Structured Products Sales Asia of Julius Baer .

Mark Muñoz, Contineo Managing Director commented: “We are delighted to announce that Julius Baer will become a subscriber on our network. This is a testament to our mission to bring greater efficiency to the industry and where Contineo innovates with an open standard everyone can benefit from.”

Contineo is currently registering private banks and implementing connectivity to multiple issuers, as well as working with certified technology companies who can also connect to the network. In addition to web-based interface, Contineo provides access through a set of FIX and REST application programming interfaces (APIs).

About Contineo Limited

Contineo Limited, headquartered in Hong Kong, is the first industry supported, open messaging network for private banks and wealth management firms to access issuers of structured products. The company is backed by AG Delta, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan and Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking.

For more information, visit www.contineo.link

Contacts: press@contineo.link / +852 3905 1030

About Julius Baer

Julius Baer is the leading Swiss private banking group, with a focus on servicing and advising sophisticated private clients and a premium brand in global wealth management. Julius Baer’s total client assets amounted to CHF 396 billion at the end of December 2014, including CHF 291 billion of assets under management. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd., the renowned Swiss private bank which celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2015, is the principal operating company of Julius Baer Group Ltd., whose shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (ticker symbol: BAER) and are included in the Swiss Market Index (SMI), comprising the 20 largest and most liquid Swiss stocks.

Julius Baer employs a staff of over 5,000, including more than 1,000 relationship managers, and is present in over 25 countries and some 50 locations. Headquartered in Zurich, we have offices in key locations including Dubai, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Lugano, Monaco, Montevideo, Moscow, Singapore and Tokyo. Our client-centric approach, our objective advice based on a unique open product platform, our very strong financial base and our entrepreneurial management culture make us the international reference in private banking.

For more information visit our website at www.juliusbaer.com

Contacts: Bank Julius Baer Media Relations Hong Kong: Tel. +852 2899 4840


Structured Retail Products: Contineo adds Julius Baer and opens Platform to Tech Providers

Contineo has added Julius Baer to its multi-dealer platform becoming the first private bank to sign up to receive prices on structured products.Julius Baer will use Contineo’s web-based interface to access multiple-issuers of structured products starting in July this year in Asia.

“[Julius Baer] will benefit from this industry backed initiative, as it aims to enhance the execution of equity-linked structured products in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Roger Meier, head of structured products sales Asia at Julius Baer.

The Hong Kong-based open messaging and price discovery platform expects to bring onboard a number of issuers and private banks before the end of the year, according to Mark Muñoz, managing director of the multi-dealer platform.

“We have been operating for a little more than a month and the response from issuers showing interest has surpassed our expectations,” said Muñoz. “We have a huge amount of momentum because on one side private banks are interested in standardising the market and on the other hand issuers are interested in lowering their costs.”

The biggest challenge for Contineo is to make sure there is a clear understanding of what private banks need and for this purpose the firm has formed an advisory committee, said Muñoz.

Contineo is in talks with five technology firms servicing the Asia Pacific wealth management market to capitalise on the connectivity they have to add value to what they are offering and lower operating costs including infrastructure management and maintenance faced by issuers when dealing with multiple private banking technology interfaces, said Muñoz.

“From the outset, Contineo was launched to be a platform open to other third parties, not just from an issuer perspective, but also from a technology perspective,” said Muñoz. “Contineo’s aim is to provide a transparent platform where third parties can connect to access structured products.”

“There are a number of tech providers out there that offer pre-and post-trade processing services, and we want to make sure we can connect those vendors that offer full back-to-front solutions service in one place.”

The new platform will continue to add functionalities beyond price discovery, said Muñoz. “We don’t want to limit this to a few issuers, private banks and tech platforms,” he said. “This is not about connecting issuers but about building a community.”

Contineo, which is backed by a consortium of banks including JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Barclays, BNP Paribas and Société Générale, and technology firm AG Delta, was launched in January to provide greater access to equity-linked structured products for private banking and wealth management firms.

Contineo supports messaging for equity-linked notes, including knock-out equity linked notes, accumulators/decumulators, fixed coupon notes, daily range accrual notes, and over the counter products through a single API connection for Hong Kong and, more recently, the US, Singapore and Japan.

by Pablo Conde

www.structuredretailproducts.com


Asian Private Banker: More Options for Tech Vendors

Contineo is opening its doors to more technology providers, allowing them to increase access, lower operating connectivity costs, and build networks offering more products.“Technology providers only need a single connection to write an API (application program interface), versus the large infrastructure with multiple protocols they deal with today,” says Mark Muñoz, managing director of Contineo Limited in Hong Kong.

Contineo already offers structured products to private banks through a consortium of six investment banks: BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking, HSBC, J.P.Morgan, and Barclays.

The addition of multiple technology vendors will result in more options for the private banks, as well as lower error rates, according to Muñoz. He added that there were no limits to the number of certified technology providers Contineo can partner with, and the price of the platform for private banks remained independent of the number of vendors.

Signing onto a multi-dealer and multi-vendor platform will also lower operating connectivity costs faced by many providers when adapting to various private banking technology suites. This is in addition to providing greater access for external product providers.

“Technology providers must manage a costly infrastructure where they have dedicated servers and lines to multiple issuers,” says Muñoz. “They must also manage a divergent set of templates or protocols with each issuer. Not only is there high capital expenditure to manage the infrastructure, but there is also a high maintenance cost to keep up with each bank’s interface.”

Contineo supports messaging for equity-linked notes (ELNs), including knock-out equity linked notes (KOELNs), accumulators/decumulators, fixed coupon notes (FCNs), daily range accrual notes (DRANs), and over the counter (OTC) products through a single API connection for its Hong Kong and, more recently, US, Singapore and Japan markets.

Muñoz believes there is room for more products on the platform because of the expected influx of issuers and technology vendors. “For example, it is feasible that a technology provider like Sungard could connect to Contineo and supplement its current equity network,” he says.

Muñoz added that Contineo was in discussion with five technology companies that cater to the wealth management sector. “We see about 10 firms that could benefit from connecting to Contineo just in Asia alone.”

The company officially launched in Asia earlier this year after spotting a significant gap in the market for a technology platform that allows private banks to gain access to multiple third-party providers in a broker-friendly manner.

The six investment banks joined with Singapore-based technology provider, AG Delta, to automate the sale of equity-linked structured notes to private banks in the region. The launch came as multi-dealer technology providers began infiltrating the market, with the likes of Vontobel’s deritrade. The Swiss bank’s platform is known for distributing its own products. However, Contineo’s arrival has brought a choice of products through different bank offerings onto one platform.

At present, many banks, including BNP Paribas, operate on in-house single-dealer platforms that utilise Cortex FX and Smart Derivatives to cater to non-flow structured products. While many acknowledge the merits of using one dealer, the cost cutting and efficiency of multi-dealer platforms is evidenced by the French lender’s signing on to Contineo.

www.asianprivatebanker.com