Börse Frankfurt Zertifikate
Issuers offering Strucutered Products
High demands on issuers in the premium segment
In order to maintain the quality standards, Börse Frankfurt places very high demands on issuers who wish to trade products in the Premium segment.
In particular, this includes the continuous transmission of bid and asked prices to the stock-exchange infrastructure via two redundant dedicated lines. Should either of them fail at some point, prices will continue to be transmitted via the other. There is no need for a temporary restriction or suspension of trading. In principle, products that are subject to the Börse Frankfurt Zertifikate Premium standards should be tradable from 9 a.m. through 8 p.m.
The bid and ask prices for premium products must be valid for certain minimum volumes. In the case of investment products, the minimum volume is EUR 10,000 (or 10,000 units). Prices for leveraged products must be valid for an order size of at least EUR 3,000 (or 10,000 units). In most cases, multiples of these minimum sizes can be traded at current prices.
The quality and the execution speed of each issuer is continously monitored and analysed so that problems can be addressed promptly.
The issuers of structured products such as certificates, warrants and reverse convertibles are usually internationally active banks and securities houses. These issuers assume the duties associated with issuing a structured product. In particular, this includes the duty to perform redemptions and/or interest payments which are subject to precise rules depending on the type of product.
After issuing a product, the issuer’s main responsibility is to provide binding bid and ask prices (“quotes”) for their securities during trading hours on an ongoing basis or at the request of their lead brokers. Hence, they need to ensure liquidity for their securities. These quotes form the basis for price determination during trading. From the investor's point of view, the narrower the spread (i.e. the difference between the bid price and ask price), the better the issuer’s quote and the higher the security’s tradable volume.
Apart from ensuring liquidity, the focus of issuers lies on the development, placement and marketing of new securities and product types. Before a new security is offered to investors and can be traded on the stock exchange, the issuer draws up a sales prospectus. The sales prospectus is reviewed by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). It is the only document that is legally binding in connection with the introduction of a new product.
The issuing banks and the increasing interest of private investors in certificates are today the main growth drivers for the market for investment and leverage products. Issuers are in constant competition for the best price and the most innovative product. Unfortunately, in recent years this tough competition has resulted in a fairly complex market. In many cases, one and the same product has several different names, because each issuer tries to differentiate its own products from those of its competitors with creative names and clever marketing.
These issuers currently meet the high quality standards:
Deutsche Börse 
