​Weekly: DoL Tightens Grip On Annuities, Korean Autocall Issuance Sustained

The DoL released its long awaited fiduciary rules this week, and while it relaxed some elements, such as allowing IRAs to trade options, it tightened the grip around annuities, scraping the exemption for fixed index annuities. While the full affects will be unknown until full implementation, the DoL extended the deadline four months to 12, it seems the biggest wire houses will likely adapt the quickest. Meanwhile, our roving reporter Rob McGlinchey filed some interesting articles this week from Hong Kong. First up, the recovery in Korean autocall issuance is likely to be sustained going into Q2, with volumes of KRW15 trillion being predicted for the next three months. Rob also reports this week that hedge funds have been buying three-month HSCEI calls and selling iShares FTSE A50 China Index (2823) calls to profit from the mismatch in the call premium ratios between the two underlyings. The trades have found favor following an improvement in China sentiment and dovish statements from the U.S. Federal Reserve. Check out the latest line up for Global EQD, which now includes Investcorp’s Rebecca Hellerstein. She’ll join PKA’s Søren Grooss, HOOPP’s Puneet Kohli and Legal & General’s Zed Francis on the ‘Institutional Approaches To Harvesting Risk Premia’ panel at ARIA Las Vegas in May. Visit http://eqderivatives.com/global-eqd for more information.