Barclays, JPMorgan Top Greenwich Structured Product Issuers Poll

Barclays Plc (BARC) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) topped a poll of providers of structured products to individual investors, according to a survey by Greenwich Associates.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based research company asked 369 distributors of the securities -- which can include advisers, brokers and private banks -- who they thought were the most important sellers of retail structured products in 2012. Forty- four percent named London-based Barclays and JPMorgan in New York as the top firms globally, Greenwich said in a report, which was based on the opinions of the respondents rather than actual transactions.

The company said the two banks dominated the global retail structured products business because their platforms extend across all major regions.

“Barclays and JPMorgan lead this market due to the breadth of their capabilities and franchises,” Andrew Awad, a consultant at Greenwich, said in the report.

HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) was cited as having the next biggest “market penetration,” followed by UBS AG, Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and BNP Paribas SA (BNP), according to the poll.

Greenwich also recognized HSBC as a “global quality leader” for providing the best service to distributors, according to the report.

U.S. investors have bought $7.84 billion of structured notes this year, just below the $8.92 billion purchased during the same period last year. European and Asian investors have sunk $18.7 billion into the securities, 13 percent less than the year before, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Banks create structured notes by packaging debt with derivatives to offer customized bets to investors, while earning fees and raising money. Derivatives are contracts whose value is derived from stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alastair Marsh in London at amarsh25@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Armstrong at parmstrong10@bloomberg.net