The new entrant to the Swiss market will be in a field where a number of organisations that issue structured products are at work.

Luma Financial Technologies, a structured products platform in the US, has pushed into the European market by opening an office in Zurich. Luma is backed by three banks: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS.

The office will be led by David Wood, managing director of Luma’s international business, who has 18 years’ experience in investment banking. He served as managing director at Societe Generale where he led the electronic business unit for equity derivatives and structured products. At Barclays, he was managing director responsible for the electronic and listed solutions business for cross asset structured products. Wood played a central role in creating the Asian structured product platform Contineo, having previously served as a board member and chairman.

Launched in 2011, Luma has helped advisors in the US and Latin America. The platform is used by broker/dealer firms, US registered investment advisors and private banks. The firm is based in Cincinnati, Ohio and has offices in New York, and now Switzerland.   

A number of structured products issuers are based in Switzerland, such as Leonteq Securities, Julius Baer, Bank Vontobel, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and UBS.