MARKET UPDATE
US market (part 2): autocalls continue to rule, buffers increase In the second of a two-part article about the US market, we look at autocalls, performances and capital protection over the last three years.
A
utocalls have historically accounted for half of all products issued in the US. In 2021, some 17,464 products with a knockout feature were launched – the equivalent of 56% of the total issuance for that year. Of these, 7,631 products are no longer live, having either matured or autocalled in the period. UBS was by far the most active issuer by issuance with 6,107 products worth US$7 billion – an average of US$1.1m per product. However, sales accumulated by J.P. Morgan, at US$6.9 billion, were almost as high, despite issuing far fewer products (2,757) while Barclays, which collected US$6.4 billion from 1,158 autocalls, achieved the highest average sales (US$5.5m per product).
US: early redemption trigger as % of total
Source: StructuredRetailProducts.com
34
www.structuredretailproducts.com
Issuance of autocalls in 2022 to date is slightly below the average. So far, 5,521 autocalls have been introduced to the market, which is 47% of the total issuance. As of 30 April 2022, J.P. Morgan is the main issuer with sales of US$2.4 billion from 1,368 products (US$1.8m per product), followed by Goldman Sachs (US$2.2 billion from 517 products) and Citi (US$2.1 billion from 611 products). Between 2018 and the end of April 2022, close to 20,000 autocall events have taken place in the US market, according to SRP data. While in 2020, 85% of all autocalls with a validation date during the year had their knockout feature triggered at
