Gosling's Grouse: A need for structure

Structured products are like zebras - black and white. I guess you could say they are also like Marmite - you either love them or hate them.

When I say ‘you’ I do not just mean advisers, I mean regulators, other product providers and, of course, journalists. I have always wondered how it can be right to be so black and white about anything in the industry. Surely any product can be right for a client in the right circumstances, whether you like them or not, and this includes structured products. As evidence, look no further than the industry’s most well-known zebra, which belongs to Investec. It issued a note last week with the maturity values of a range of its plans that matured at the beginning of February. Of course,...