Karen Fang has left AIG Financial Products for a multi-asset class structuring position in fixed income and equity structured products with Goldman Sachs . . . Jason Wilson, a renown equity structured products star from CIBC's Canadian office, will be moving to SocGen's New York office, reporting to Sam Rosenberg . . . Alexandra von Obelitz, a prominent marketer of retail-oriented products for SocGen, has shifted over to work in the third-party distribution group of Lehman Brothers, reporting to Christina Sfakianos . . . Demetri Xistris has moved from BNP Paribas, to join Societe Generale as a Managing Director and Legal Head Americas - Equities & Equity Derivatives . . . Mike DeSantis, a trader for structured products at HSBC New York, has reportedly left the firm for a 60-day "gardening leave." His new employer had not been ascertained as of press time.

December 2006 saw the biggest shake-up at Bank of America since legendary equity derivatives chief John Sandelman left five years ago. As part of a reorganization of the US bank's equities and structured finance units, Chris Innes - the global head of equity financial products - left the firm along with Pat Augustine, the former global head of structured products. According to Reuters, "the departures come in the wake of Bank of America's decision at the end of last year to combine its equity financial products business, which covers equity derivatives, convertible debt and prime brokerage, with its cash equities division." BofA's Peter Forlenza, who previously ran cash equities, will take charge of the combined business. Forlenza and Innes worked together at Salomon Brothers a decade ago under Sandelman. Chris Hentemann, who was co-head of global structured finance, will become global head of structured products.

Cantor Fitzgerald became the latest Wall Street firm to launch a new structured products unit. On January 25, Cantor's CEO and President Irv Goldman announced that Gina Hubbell and Ed LaScala joined the Debt Capital Markets division's newly formed Structured Products Group. Hubbell will head the new unit, having come from UBS and running the Fixed Income Product Development and Structuring team at Credit Suisse First Boston (under Goldman who was with CSFB at the time). LaScala previously served as head of Debt Syndicate at HSBC and head of Syndicate and Debt Capital Markets at Societe Generale and DLJ. Goldman told reporters, "The creation of the Structured Products Group underscores Cantor Fitzgerald's continuing emphasis on augmenting our product origination and client service capabilities. Gina's and Ed's extensive experience in structured finance, their market insight, and their emphasis on building superior client relationships, are a natural fit with our firm's culture and focus on excellence in client service."

RBC Capital Markets announced that its innovative RBC Hedge 250 Index had a net return of 1.41 per cent in December, bringing its estimated annual return for the index to 10.64 per cent for 2006. The RBC Hedge 250 Index is an investable benchmark of the performance of the hedge fund industry, and according to RBC, "the Index operates in accordance with a unique construction methodology . . . of more than 250 actual hedge funds from a universe of 5,635 hedge funds with aggregate assets under management of $1.159 trillion." RBC's index is compelling in part because it provides the available to invest synthetically in the entire universe of the hedge fund industry - even high-performing funds that are closed to new investments. Since its inception on July 1, 2005, the RBC Hedge 250 Index has had an annualized net return of 10.76 per cent, compared to other investable indices which have averaged 7.43 per cent. Non-investable indices have averaged 12.63 per cent in that same time period.

A major up-and-coming player in the structured products space named a new co-head of US fixed income to concentrate on developing the business. Robeco Investment Management, the US asset management arm of Robeco Group, named James A. Ramsay, CFA as Co-Head US Fixed Income with Daniel Vandivort, as a Senior Managing Director and a member of the firm's Management Committee. Ramsay's twenty-three years of professional fixed income experience came with firms such as PIMCO AIG/SunAmerica, Unum Provident Corporation and Salomon Brothers and emphasized portfolio management for traditional and structured products. William Kelly, CEO, Robeco Investment Management said in a statement that, "We are confident Jim will help guide the strategic direction of our fixed income effort by expanding our capabilities and growing our fixed income business while delivering the performance and meeting the objectives that our clients have come to expect." Robeco is the center for asset management within the Rabobank Group, the triple-A rated structured products powerhouse. Separately, Rabobank is close to finalizing its presence in New York as the center of its US structured products activity, moving Marius Kerdel from the West Coast to join Mark Garbin in the new office.

Structured products revenues once again were the wind beneath the wings of several major financial institutions, driving profits in the fourth quarter for both Piper Jaffray and CIBC. For Piper, fixed income sales and trading revenues were up 14 percent compared to the year-ago period, primarily due to higher revenues from high-yield and structured products. Compared to the third quarter of 2006, revenues rose 44 percent, again driven primarily by structured products activity. "We are extremely pleased to deliver a solid year of financial results, with strong top-line growth and improved profitability," said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Andrew S. Duff. "2006 was a pivotal year for Piper Jaffray as we repositioned our company to focus all our resources on our capital markets businesses." . . . CIBC reported record net income in the fourth quarter, $819 million, up from $662 million in 3Q06, and nearly $100 million better than Q4 of 2005. Return on equity was driven up to 32.5%. According to the initial conference call on the results, CIBC attributed the significant revenue increase due to success in the Equities division, which experienced strong structured products and proprietary trading results. . . Separately, it was also confirmed that the equities and fixed income structured products units in CIBC Americas division will be combined in 2007.

With the close of 2006, the American Stock Exchange announced its fifth consecutive year of listing over 100 structured products. The Amex's Capital Markets Group listed 114 new issues in 2006, bringing its total universe to 394 structured products. "The Amex's Capital Markets Group continues to surpass expectations and bring new and innovative structured products to the marketplace," said Richard Mikaliunas, Senior Vice President of the Capital Markets Group. The AMEX also successfully launched its new state-of-the-art trading platform, AEMI, on November 6. The new trading platform provides immediate and automated execution of electronic orders for securities such as structured products. The Exchange intends to migrate all structured products to the new platform by the SEC-mandated deadline of February 5, 2007.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw record volume in options activity, related in large part to call-overwrite strategies in the form of structured notes and closed-end funds. According to CBOE's Matt Moran, 2006 CBOE options contract volume was an all-time record of 674,735,348 contracts (up 44% over the previous year) and the average daily volume in CBOE options on indexes and ETFs was 1,131,699 contracts -- a 48% increase over 2005. Despite persistent dampening in the VIX volatility index, the CBOE's four CBOE BuyWrite Indexes rose by more than 11% in 2006 (CBOE S&P 500 2% Out-of-the-Money BuyWrite Index (BXY) -- Up 17.1%; CBOE S&P 500 BuyWrite Index (BXM) -- Up 13.3%; CBOE DJIA BuyWrite Index (BXD) -- Up 12.7.%; CBOE Russell 2000 BuyWrite Index (BXR) - Up 11.6%. CBOE also collected a key industry award in the recent Super Bowl of Indexing -- options on the CBOE Volatility Index won Most Innovative Index Derivative Award.