Merit puts investors in the driving seat

With equity markets still moving sideways and no sign of a revival in corporate profitability, the creation of structured credit products to meet specialized investor needs is one of the few business lines still booming at investment banks. JPMorgan’s structured credit business has been taking full advantage of that in recent months.

Earlier in the year it created Jeci, an instrument that gives investors a liquid way to gain diversified exposure to credit default swaps. Now it has devised Merit (Manager Enhanced Return Increasing Tailor-made), an instrument it says solves a problem that has troubled investors for some time.