Marex Group expands structured products to HNWIs

Marex Group received approval by ASIC to distribute structured investment solutions to wholesale clients under its existing foreign AFSL earlier this month, in a move to fill the structured product adoption gap in Australia.

While the group is not new to Australia, it established an office in Sydney in December 2021 and has been offering its clearing and over the counter (OTC) hedging capabilities in the market since.

It also became an ASX Clear (Futures) clearing and trading participant in 2023.

Marex Financial Products head of APAC Franck Fayard told Financial Standard Australia remains a crucial market for its expansion across the broader region.

"The expansion of Marex Financial Products is a natural evolution of that footprint, extending the group's offering into a new segment of the market," Fayard said.

"The timing is a reflection of market opportunity for us. Australia's structured products market is expected to grow over the next decade, driven by converging forces, including increasing affluence among HNWIs and a structural shift toward alternative and yield-generating assets.

"APAC is a key geography for Marex Financial Products, and Australia represents a natural extension to replicate the success the business has built in Europe, as well as across the rest of Asia."

To expand in Australia, Fayard said an uplift in structured product education is need and that Marex is keen to fill that gap.

"We see our high attention to service as a key factor to unlock the market's growth potential," Fayard said.

"Across APAC, we have been collaborating with a number of private banks to develop customised structured products on any asset classes, and a similar approach can be anticipated in Australia."

In the near term, Fayard said Marex will focus on building relationships with private banks, wealth managers, and independent financial advisers (IFAs) across Australia.

"The financial products expansion will initially be driven out of Singapore, building on that existing local Australian infrastructure rather than starting from scratch," Fayard said.

"We operate with a service-led model globally, with a larger team of experts handling fewer accounts each as a deliberate point of differentiation from bank competitors, and that approach will be extended to our Australian distributor relationships."

He added that the business has already engaged with distributor clients in APAC to help strategise their offerings, which include crypto-linked products, in response to recent market volatility.

"That responsive, service-led engagement will be part of how we build our Australian client base," he said.

"In the longer term, the ambition is to replicate the success of the business in APAC. One of our goals is also to support the local institutions who may wrap and distribute products under their own brand and wrappers."