Most investment managers with a proven strategy never scale it. Not because the strategy fails, but because the infrastructure to distribute it never gets built.
UCITS fund route takes about 12 to 18 months and costs in the range of EUR 100,000 to EUR 200,000 in setup and first-year running costs alone, before a single investor sees the product. The private placement route keeps the strategy locked behind accredited-only walls, invisible to the millions of retail investors in Germany who access investment products through their existing bank and broker accounts. The managed account route works until the client leaves, and the track record leaves with them.
iMaps’ target group sits within a large and still-growing market. Europe is home to more than 4,600 asset management companies, employing 130,000 people directly, and managing an estimated EUR 34.4 trillion in assets, with Germany among the five largest fund ownership markets on the continent. Behind those numbers are thousands of independent portfolio managers, traders, and licensed investment managers running proven strategies, many of whom have never had a viable path to a scalable, exchange-listed product. That is the gap iMaps was built to fill in 2018.
And now, in 2026, the German market continues to notice.
Since its first nomination in 2021, iMaps has appeared on the Deutscher Zertifikatepreis ballot every year. In 2026, it competes in nearly every category against Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, JP Morgan, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Société Générale, and more than a dozen other major institutions, as one of only two independent issuers without a banking group behind it.
What the Deutscher Zertifikatepreis Is, and Why It Matters
The Deutscher Zertifikatepreis is an annual award run by Feingold Research, co-sponsored by the three German Exchanges trading structured investments products Börse Frankfurt, Börse Stuttgart and Börse gettex in Munich as well as Germany`s leading TV news channel n-tv. It evaluates issuers of structured products across Germany, home to over EUR 111 billion in outstanding structured products, making it the largest retail structured products markets in the world.
The evaluation is not a brochure competition. It combines four independent inputs:
- A service study conducted by Feingold Research, assessing issuers across product quality, documentation, and pricing transparency
- Actual trading volumes across exchanges and OTC platforms
- A public vote, open from 1 June to 31 July 2026, drawing responses from retail investors and professional market participants across Germany
- An expert jury vote, with over 40 jurors from institutions including Börse Stuttgart, Deutsche Börse, Baader Bank, comdirect, flatex DEGIRO, ICF Bank, justTRADE, S Broker, Smartbroker, and leading financial journalists from Der Aktionär, Börse Online, ZertifikateJournal, onvista, and n-tv
Being on the ballot, evaluated by this jury against these issuers, in a market of this size, is a signal. The nomination does not arrive by filling out a form. It arrives because the market’s professionals and investors are already choosing iMaps. The 2026 expert jury includes representation from Börse Stuttgart (Head of Exchange Operations), Deutsche Börse AG (Business Development Retail), Baader Bank (Head of Derivatives Sales), comdirect (Managing Director Brokerage), flatex DEGIRO (Head of Business Development), Consorsbank (Senior Manager Trading Products), ICF Bank (Director Market Making), S Broker (Head of Product and Trading Offering), Smartbroker AG (Board Member), justTRADE (Founder and CEO), gettex (Head of Issuer Relations), as well as editors and chief editors from ZertifikateJournal, Der Aktionär, Börse Online, onvista, and n-tv. These are not observers. They are the institutions and journalists that define how structured products are bought, distributed, and covered in the German market.
The Categories Where iMaps Is Competing
In 2026, iMaps is on the ballot across the following categories:
- Best overall issuer
- Best digital offering
- Best customer service
- Best information offering
- Best trading quality
- Best investment products
- Best ESG and sustainability solutions
- Best education and learning offering
- Best sales support
- Best primary market issuer
Two categories carry particular weight this year.
Best investment products is where the core of iMaps’ product architecture goes head to head with the full institutional field. Every ETI iMaps issues is built on a specific investment manager’s live strategy, not a generic product from a central shelf.
Best digital offering is where iMaps has a structural advantage no bank on this ballot can replicate. With more than 70,000 followers and group members across platforms, iMaps has built the largest social media footprint of any structured products issuer in its peer group.
Beyond the public ballot, the jury has nominated iMaps in two additional categories:
- Best issuer for index and participation investment products
- Structured investment product of the year: the iMaps Haack Performance ETI
What iMaps Actually Builds, and Why That Is Different
iMaps is an ETI issuer: a platform that takes an investment manager’s existing strategy and repackages it into an Exchange Traded Instrument listed on Stuttgart Stock Exchange (EUWAX).
EUWAX is home to over 1.9 million structured investment products. It is the world’s largest exchange segment for structured investment products. When an iMaps ETI is listed there, it is not listed in a niche corner of the market. It is listed on the exchange that Germany’s retail investors, banks, and brokers already use every day to buy and sell structured products.
The structural chain works as follows:
The Issuer: iMaps ETI AG
Registered in Liechtenstein and operating a FMA (Financial Market Authority Liechtenstein) approved issuance programme. ESMA-registered. The issuer has structured over a billion EUR in ETI volume across more than 200 issuances over the years. iMaps currently holds EUR 425 million in open interest across listed investment products, representing a market share of over 10% in Germany by volume, and exceeding 25% by stock exchange turnover in some months.
The Investment Vehicle
Each ETI is linked 1:1 to a dedicated Segregated Portfolio, held within a Segregated Portfolio Company wholly owned by iMaps ETI AG. The segregated structure means that one investment manager’s portfolio is legally and operationally ring-fenced from every other. If any other portfolio within the program encounters a problem, it has no path to the other portfolios.
The Collateral Layer: CSG Group as Security Trustee
The segregated portfolio is pledged to CSG Group, acting as independent security trustee for the benefit of the ETI investors. This pledge structure protects against the credit risk of iMaps ETI AG itself. If iMaps were to fail, the assets do not become part of the issuer’s insolvency estate. They are ring-fenced and due to investors. This is what collateralization means in practice, and it is the standard that separates exchange-traded instruments from unsecured bank certificates.
The Execution Layer: Institutional Brokers
The investment manager executes trades within the segregated portfolio through one of three institutional broker partners:
- Interactive Brokers, which provides access to 170+ markets in 29 currencies from a single platform and serves clients in 200+ countries and territories
- Vantage, a multi-asset broker founded in 2009, regulated across 4 jurisdictions including the FCA (UK) and ASIC (Australia), offering 1,000+ instruments across FX, indices, commodities, ETFs, bonds, and equities in 172 countries
- Coinbase Prime, for crypto strategies, offering institutional custody and trading across 250+ digital assets with USD 320 million in insurance coverage and 24/7 trading access
The result: an investment manager with a live strategy can trade exactly as they already do, through a broker they may already use, while the ETI listed on EUWAX reflects their portfolio in real time.
The Distribution Layer: Exchange and Clearing
The ETI is issued in Clearstream, available for settlement in Euroclear and SIX. It trades on EUWAX with daily liquidity. Investors access it through their existing bank or broker accounts, including Interactive Brokers, Swissquote, UBS, and neobrokers such as Smartbroker, Traders Place, and others. The strategy that lived inside a spreadsheet or a managed account is now accessible by and eligible for marketing to retail investors in the whole EEA and Switzerland and accessible to investors in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates/Dubai and beyond.
Why Investment Products Is the Category That Counts
For most issuers on this ballot, the investment products category is answered by the size of their product shelf: how many certificates they list, how tight their spreads are, how much marketing they produce.
For iMaps, the answer is structural.
Every ETI iMaps issues is a bespoke product built on a specific investment manager’s actual live strategy. The investor who buys an iMaps ETI is buying direct, 1:1 exposure to a specific manager’s portfolio, fully collateralised, listed on a regulated exchange, with daily liquidity. There is no fund fee structure layered on top. There is no lock-up. There is no minimum investment barrier that excludes retail participants.
How to Vote, and What Happens Next
Public voting for the Deutscher Zertifikatepreis 2026 is open from 1 June to 31 July 2026. The vote takes less than 2 minutes. Every participant enters a draw for an iPhone 17 Pro and an exclusive 6-month stock market service subscription.
If the work iMaps does, bringing independent investment managers from strategy to listed, distributable, exchange-traded product, deserves recognition in the market where that work matters most, a vote is the way to say so.
You can support iMaps with your vote right here: https://easy-feedback.de/umfrage/2116050/X2SCUYx
For Investment Managers Reading This
Across all platforms, iMaps has now passed 70,000 followers and group members, making it the most-followed structured products issuer in its peer group. A number we are proud of, and one that keeps growing thanks to you.
If you manage an investment strategy that produces results, the structure described in this article is available to you. More than EUR 1 billion in iMaps ETI issuance volume was not built through one large relationship. It was built strategy by strategy, through investment managers who had a working approach and needed a way to distribute it at scale.
The path from strategy to listed ETI on Stuttgart Stock Exchange runs approximately 30 business days.
Let us know whenever you’re ready to launch your first ETI!
Sources
- European asset management market: 4,600+ asset management companies, ~130,000 people employed, EUR 34.4 trillion AuM, Germany among the five largest fund ownership markets in Europe. European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), Asset Management in Europe, 17th Edition (December 2025) and Our Industry in Numbers. https://www.efama.org/about-our-industry/our-industry-numbers
- German structured products market: over EUR 111 billion in outstanding volume. Bundesverband für strukturierte Wertpapiere (BSW), Marktvolumen & Marktanteile nach Marktvolumen (monthly market statistics, 2024). https://www.derbsw.de/de/marktvolumen/
- EUWAX (Börse Stuttgart): over 1.9 million listed structured products; largest exchange segment for securitised derivatives in Europe. Börse Stuttgart. https://www.boerse-stuttgart.de
- Interactive Brokers: access to 170+ markets in 29 currencies from a single platform; clients in 200+ countries and territories. Interactive Brokers LLC. https://www.interactivebrokers.com
- Vantage: multi-asset broker founded in 2009, regulated across multiple jurisdictions including the FCA (UK) and ASIC (Australia); 1,000+ instruments across FX, indices, commodities, ETFs, bonds, and equities; operating in 172 countries. Vantage Markets. https://www.vantagemarkets.com
- Coinbase Prime: institutional custody and trading across 250+ digital assets; USD 320 million in insurance coverage; 24/7 trading access. Coinbase, Inc. https://www.coinbase.com/prime
