Power reverse dual currency note

A dual-currency note (DC) pays coupons in the investor's domestic currency with the notional in the issuer’s domestic currency. A reverse dual-currency note (RDC) is a note which pays a foreign interest rate in the investor's domestic currency. A power reverse dual-currency note (PRDC) is a structured product where an investor is seeking a better return and a borrower a lower rate by taking advantage of the interest rate differential between two economies. The power component of the name denotes higher initial coupons and the fact that coupons rise as the foreign exchange rate depreciates. The power feature comes with a higher risk for the investor, which characterizes the product as leveraged carry trade. Cash flows may have a digital cap feature where the rate gets locked once it reaches a certain threshold. Other add-on features include barriers such as knockouts and cancel provision for the issuer. PRDCs are part of the wider Structured Notes Market.

The majority of investors are Japanese with 9 billion USD worth of notes issued in 2003 and the issued notional increasing every year thereafter up until 2008 when it sharply declined. Major participants in the market include issuers (usually Supranationals) of the notes under their Euro Medium Term Note program. Also heavily involved are PRDC swap hedgers - the major ones include JPMorgan Chase, Nomura Securities Co., UBS Investment Bank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Barclays Investment Bank, Credit Suisse, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The investor pays a coupon times a fixed rate in currency c1 and receives a coupon times a fixed rate in currency c2 times current FX rate divided by the FX rate at the inception of the deal. However, the cash flows are always guaranteed to be positive for the investor. The investor, therefore, has the option to receive cash flows making the payoff similar to a Bermudan style FX option. The swap house is, thus, selling a series of Currency options with a floating rate as a premium; the rate is usually subtracted with a spread.

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