Structured Thoughts: News For The Financial Services Community, Volume 5, Issue 7

Index Changes and Successor Indices: Avoiding Delisting from the NYSE Arca

Down deep, somewhere in the boilerplate in the back of a prospectus for an index-linked note, you can find the provisions for index adjustments and successor indices. These standard provisions are sometimes given only a cursory glance when drafting a disclosure document. Index changes or discontinuances are rare, and even more rarely occupy much real estate in the mind of the draftsperson. There may be a rude awakening in store, however, for that inattentive draftsperson if the note is listed on the NYSE Arca.

Index Changes and Substitutions

What happens if the index sponsor makes a material change to the underlying index, or if the underlying index is no longer published and has to be replaced? In the event of a material change to the index that, in the opinion of the note calculation agent, causes the underlying index to no longer fairly represent the level that the index would have had