01 The value chain transformed
Then
Major bank
IssuanceStructuringAdministrationDistribution
Vertically integrated
↓
Now
Administrator
Paying agent
Issued in Zurich. Sold in Dubai. Singapore.
Switzerland remains the core — private banking tradition, regulatory openness, tolerance for non-standard underlyings. But no longer the whole story.
02 Where the edge moved
Payoff complexity
Structuring exotic payoffs
Was the edge
Now↓
Infrastructure & execution
- Technology platforms
- Automated lifecycle management
- Operational scalability
Is the edge
“When execution becomes routine, competition moves to infrastructure. A maturity signal.”
03 How big is the market?
?
↓
~$3bnNarrowest count
~$1.6tnBroadest count
Estimates vary by an order of magnitude — depending on who is counting and what they count as an AMC.
A market that doesn't report on itself
The quarterly disclosures of major investment banks contain no mention of AMCs. The activity is real, substantial and growing — and essentially invisible to anyone outside the ecosystem.