Downside to structured bonds

Less than a third of the 19 most popular structured products maturing in the next few months are set to return investors' initial capital in full. Of the 19 products, which attracted hundreds of millions of pounds from investors, only five will return 100% of capital invested and not one has even matched inflation, let alone made any profit, according to Chelsea Financial Services. Canada Life International's Platinum Income Series Four bond has underperformed the index on which its returns are based, the Nasdaq 100, by some 4% due to its heavy downside gearing. At current levels, i...