Adviser-focused structured product data service to close

Structured Retail Products has announced today (27 January) that it will no longer be running the SRPAdviser.com website, which provides an online data service for structured products aimed at advisers, from the end of February.

In an email that was sent to a subscriber in response to an enquiry over subscription renewal, Structured Retail Products Ltd, the owner of SRPAdviser.com and a subsidiary of Euromoney, said that it has taken the decision to no longer continue running the SRPAdviser.com website.

The email, seen by FTAdviser, said: “Structured Retail Products Ltd (the owner of SRPAdviser.com) has taken the decision to no longer continue running the SRPAdviser.com website. With effect from the 29/02/2011 [sic], www.SRPAdviser.com will no longer be active.”

For those with existing subscriptions, the email said there would be a “highly discounted subscription rate” to access StructuredRetailProducts.com, with one-year subscription rate for ex-SRPAdviser subscribers offered at £990, down from from £2,400, until 11/02/2012.

The website said it has has also arranged for current subscribers to access the UK database for two weeks, completely free of charge.

Jan Scibor-Kaminski, managing director at StructuredRetailProducts.com, said: “We have taken the view that Structured Retail Products is a more powerful tool in terms of analytics, trends etc. We want to migrate users across, so we are enhancing and beefing up our proposition.”

Ian Lowes, managing director at Lowes Financial Management, told FTAdviser: “It is a little disappointing that SRPAdviser are closing down at the end of February, particularly as it was one of the few sources of information on bank-distributed structured products and has proved useful on occasion.

“The subscription cost to access SRP’s primary portal will prove prohibitive and unnecessary for most UK IFAs, particularly as there are free to access offerings such as Futurevc.co.uk and StructuredProductReview.com.”

Simon Harris, a former employee of SRPAdviser.com and now associate director of EFG Financial Products, said: “Now there are a number free alteratives in the market. I think it was inevitable for it to concentrate on their core business, which is aimed at the institutional market rather than IFAs.

“When I joined in 2003, there was not much information about structured products. It was really new and everyone still uses its data.”