Critical size on the derivatives market

A fully fledged player in its market, Exane Derivatives, which is 100%-held by Exane, specialises in structured products and listed products (options, convertible bonds and credits). The Derivatives teams, which total 180 people in Paris, Geneva, Milan and now Singapore, where we have recently opened an office, cover the main client segments from mutual funds to private management.

A mature issuance platform
Thanks to its mature issuance platform for structured products, Exane Derivatives has developed a broad range of products (vanilla and exotic) tailored to investor profiles: mutual funds, private banking and retail networks. The offer includes a range of structured funds with yields that have been widely applauded by independent financial advisers. Also, a specific value-added chain has been created to cover the institutional investor segment (pension funds, insurance, etc).

The "Mix", a core strength of the derivatives activity, marries the fundamental convictions and the product expertise of the various teams at Exane. This original positioning enables Exane Derivatives to propose innovative products created from outstanding research in the areas of asset allocation, economics, strategy and equity and derivatives. The derivatives research teams have won strong recognition among clients, as was amply demonstrated by the rankings awarded to Exane in the 2006 Thomson Extel Pan European survey.

2006 highlights
In December 2006, Moody's awarded the Exane group an A3 rating with stable outlook. This recognition of the group's good fundamentals and firm financial position marks a decisive step for the development of the tailor-made product issuance activity.

In 2006, Exane Derivatives acquired critical size in the equity derivatives business. The NBI of this activity has more than doubled in the past two years, enabling Exane to join the "peer group" of European banks that are active on these instruments. The extension of the client segments (mutual funds, private banking, retail and institutional) and the diversity of activities (arbitrage, market-making, brokerage and structured product issuance) paved the way for this change of scale.