Reports of losses in investing in accumulators have surfaced in the past few months, leading to rising concerns about the regulation of these products which are sold by private banks and brokers.
While most private banks push their discretionary portfolio management to clients, few want to focus on their execution business - which involves trading stocks and other leveraged products such as accumulators.
According to Dutch Bank ABN Amro, the majority of accumulators are bought by Hong Kong investors - who have a high-risk appetite, especially for accumulators - followed by investors from Singapore.
ABN Amro estimated that there were at least US$43.2billion worth of accumulators issued last year.
Philip Jehle, head of the private clients unit at Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, said that banks avoided offering accumulator products unless clients insisted on them.
'The appetite for sophisticated derivatives products has diminished. I believe, and hope for the interest of these clients, that more transparency and clarity will be given if banks want to continue marketing derivatives products,' Mr Jehle said.