SG to expand structured products despite crunch

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

GENEVA (Reuters) - Societe Generale (SOGN.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it plans to expand its structured products unit and added that demand for such complex financial instruments remained robust despite problems during the recent global credit crisis.

"The goal is to extend the organization and this model," Nicolas Cagi Nicolau, SG global head of structured products solutions, told the Reuters Wealth Management Summit.

"The trends in SG private banking are definitely good," he added.

The structured products offered by SocGen, France's second-biggest listed bank, give clients exposure to several asset classes, such as equities, commodities, cash, bonds and real estate.

Cagi Nicolau said these could take the form of an EMTN (European Medium Term Note) or products that allow customers to bet on prospects of the Japanese real estate market compared to the American property market.

However, such complex financial instruments were at the forefront of the recent stock market slump as losses in the U.S. subprime mortgage market spilled over into other areas such as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs).

Cagi Nicolau said his business had suffered along with the rest of the sector during the market turmoil of August and September, but not as much as SocGen's rivals.

"Of course we suffered. I will not say the opposite. But we didn't suffer so much when compared to the benchmark."  Continued...