Leonteq AG (SIX: LEON), the Zurich-based engineering and infrastructure partner for investment solutions, today announced the launch of its new “Smart Data” business initiative. This will include the future offering of state-of-the-art analytics to investors based on Leonteq’s extensive historical databases, with a view to facilitating and automating the investment decision process for clients. Leonteq plans to invest substantially in its “Smart Data” initiative over the next few years, and expects to further accelerate business growth as a result. In order to ensure the necessary capabilities, Michael Hartweg, currently Deputy CEO and Head of the White-labeling and Platform Development division, has decided to fully dedicate his time to the “Smart Data” initiative, strategic innovation and business intelligence in the future, and will hence step down from the Executive Committee and as division head from 1 October 2014. The division will report directly to CEO Jan Schoch until a new Executive Committee member has been appointed.
With the “Smart Data” initiative, Leonteq’s proprietary investment service platform will evolve towards more enduser analytics, offering clients unique features that will help them reduce the time they spend on product design and investment research, improve productivity and generally enhance their investment decision process.
The foundation of the planned new offerings is Leonteq’s integrated business model which covers the entire value chain including structuring, pricing, risk management, market-making and life-cycle management. Thanks to this set-up, Leonteq has over the years not only gained significant experience in all areas of investment solutions, but also has a wealth of historical data at its disposal. By leveraging Leonteq’s platform with the most recent “Big Data” technologies, clients will in future be able to share the benefits of these databases through tailor-made offerings.
Over time, new features available to clients of Leonteq and its white-labeling-partners are expected to include:
Such new offerings are planned to be made available to clients in stages through Leonteq’s “Constructor” – a webbased application that allows professional investors to create and calculate structured investment products on over 1,000 underlying securities in a wide variety of currencies and across multiple issuers running on Leonteq’s platform.
From today, the “Constructor” will also be available publicly to all investors who will get access to certain existing and future features for calculation and simulation purposes. For selected products, the minimum product issuance size will be lowered from CHF 50,000 to CHF 1,000. Ordering and buying products will continue to be restricted to professional investors and intermediaries. The “Constructor” is currently only offered in Switzerland, however, plans for a rollout to other countries are underway.
Leonteq plans to invest substantially in its “Smart Data” initiative over the next few years, as part of ongoing investments in its market-leading IT and investment service platform.
Anticipating technological, financial and societal developments will be key for Leonteq in delivering on its “Smart Data” initiative and other future megatrends. In order to ensure the necessary capabilities, founding partner Michael Hartweg, currently Deputy CEO and Head of the White-labeling and Platform Development division, has decided to fully dedicate his time to the “Smart Data” initiative, strategic innovation and business intelligence in the future, without the distraction of the daily business. He will hence step down from the Executive Committee and as division head from 1 October 2014. The division will report directly to CEO Jan Schoch until a new Executive Committee member has been appointed, which is expected to take place until the end of 2014.
Jan Schoch, CEO of Leonteq: “Making best use of available data is expected to be a game-changer in many industries. At Leonteq, thanks to our integrated business model covering the entire value-chain, we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on this trend on behalf of our clients. We are prepared to make the necessary investments both in terms of IT spendings and people. I’m thrilled that Michael Hartweg will take over a new role focusing exclusively on strategic innovation. We are lucky enough to have an excellent team in place who will ensure further progress in our White-labeling and Platform Development unit together with me, until a new Executive Committee member has been appointed.”