Contineo, a new industry-backed messaging network for equity-linked structured products whose on-boarding subscribers include Julius Baer, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan and Societe Generale, has begun live operations.

Contineo facilitates transactions between buy- and sell sides. Managing Director Mark Munoz says the firm’s ‘go-live’ represents a new phase in the evolution of the structured products market.
 
“Contineo has been developed by the industry, for the industry,” he says. “Our agnostic platform is open to all participants and, through our Advisory Group, we are bringing the industry’s key players together for the first time to develop a set of standards that will benefit us all.”
 
“Automation is the way to go for structured product distribution and execution in Asia,” says Roger Meier, Head of Structured Product Sales Asia at Julius Baer. “Replacing email with a multi-issuer electronic platform will allow us to access products, have an overview of the market, and retrieve data in a streamlined fashion that we just don’t have today. In the future we envisage the evolution of things like common term sheets, post-trade data and more pay-offs.”
 
Contineo acts as a communications hub for products including Equity Linked Notes; Knock-Out Equity Linked Notes; Accumulator; Decumulator; Fixed Coupon Notes; DRAN and OTC Options. The platform was conceived in 2014 and began beta operations earlier this year.