New Financial Instrument: Market Share and Reverse Engineering

Recently in my introductory business courses (not a business major) we have been discussing the traditional notion that when a company creates a new product and has a patent on it, it will usually enjoy monopoly like control and market share that lasts well beyond the patent expiry.

Other arguments are made when there is no form of protection or barriers of entry for the innovation, that either the company can capitalize on its 'brand' value for being a first mover or that the competitive markets will take over and whoever can offer the best price will dominate.

When banks create a new financial instrument, I'm curious to how they maintain a market leading position? Information asymmetry making it difficult to shop around? Relationships?

It seems like everything can be reverse engineered and replicated by another banks as soon as it takes a whiff of a new product(CDS, tax avoidance strategies, etc.). Is it even common for new financial instruments to pop up often?

What are your thoughts?

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Curious as well

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New Financial Instrument: Market Share and Reverse Engineering

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