Derivatives Global Awards

The violent sell-off across financial markets this spring turned many investors’ positions upside down. Those without proper hedges in place were at best left embarrassed and at worst forced to shut up shop. Despite central banks once again intervening, plenty are finding reason to be cautious. Ross Lancaster investigates what lessons, if any, market participants have learnt from the meltdown.

Ranked number one across products and regions, and with a proprietary technology platform built from scratch, Citi is positioned for a world where scale and breadth is vital — and the preserve of a handful of firms. Citi tops that pile in both flow business and structured solutions, and it has built a leading OTC clearing business to boot.

After a record breaking year in which Quantile grew its core business and evolved its offering to meet clients’ needs amid a shifting regulatory backdrop, Quantile is Global Capital’s Global Compression Service of the Year.

Tradeweb’s commitment to connecting people and markets by bridging liquidity pools and its work on boosting analytics to help new asset classes prepare for electronification set it apart from its rivals — and led to the company being named GlobalCapital’s OTC Trading Venue of the Year.

TP ICAP forged ahead with the expansion of its data and analytics offering in 2019, outperforming the market as it rolled out a broader suite of products.

BNP Paribas went from strength to strength in 2020 by upping the pace of its digitalisation and expanding its client base.

Few firms possess the breadth of derivatives product expertise that Mayer Brown has, and it stands out for its global reach and leading practices on both sides of the Atlantic.

For its work in helping clients across Europe navigate a raft of regulations — from Brexit to Ibor transition and initial margin reporting — Clifford Chance is GlobalCapital’s European Law Firm of the Year for regulatory work.

With its data, technology and expertise across asset classes, IHS Markit has developed its offering to adapt to new regulations and help clients fulfil their reporting and compliance obligations.

Playing to its strengths as a top trading house across both flow market making and structured products, Nomura stands out for its consistency, global offering and appetite for risk taking.

In January, Singapore Exchange (SGX) found itself centre stage when the Covid-19 pandemic began to flare up in China. With some Asian markets closed for Chinese New Year, investors dashed to it. “SGX was the only market open for China-proxy risk management and we saw impact across our derivatives shelf,” said Michael Syn, senior managing director at SGX.

Credit Suisse has harnessed its strength in structured products to deliver innovative solutions for its private banking and institutional clients in a collaborative fashion.