These are structured products. I am reluctant to talk about it because I know the industry and I consider this mainly gambling, but yes they are quite fashionable among swiss asset managers and private bankers in particular.
All structured products are usually a combination of a bond and an (exotic) option. The main issuers of such products in Switzerland are EFG Bank, Vontobel, Leonteq, Cornèr Bank, Raiffeisen, UBS and so on.
There are a hundreds of different kind of structured products, but the one you are describing here is a “Capital Protected Certificate with Participation”, of which you can find an example here.. This product started in 2017 expires in 2022 and works like this:
- There is an “initial fixing date” (Here 18.10.2017) at which you record the value of the S&P500. Here it was $2561.26, which is called the initial fixing level. The product contains as well a “strike level”, here set at 125% of the initial fixing level, so it is $3201.56
- At issue date (25.10.2017), you invest $1000 in the product.
- At maturity, (18.10.2022), the issuer will pay you differently based on the three below scenarios:
- if on 18.10.2022 the S&P is at or below the initial fixing level, then it pays you back the denomination ($1000)
- if on 18.10.2022, the S&P is above the initial fixing level but below the strike level, the issuer pays you back your investment plus the performance of the S&P
- if on 18.10.2022 the S&P is above the strike level, the issuer pays you only $1250.
As you can see it is just a bet that in 5 years the S&P will not appreciate more than 25%. And it is just that: a bet.
By an large the most popular category of structured products are called “barrier reverse convertible”, of which you can find an example here as well.
It works like this:
- The product has one or several underlyings, (here 3: Amazon, Netflix and Spotify), of which you record the price level at an initial fixing date (here it will be 17.12.2018). These levels are called initial fixings. There is as well a “barrier level”, here setup at 50% which means that during the lifetime of the product we will monitor if any of the underlyings falls below 50% of its initial fixing. Finally, there is a strike level, here setup at 100% of initial fixing.
- At issue date, you invest $1000 in the product
- During the whole lifetime of the product, you get an almost tax-free guaranteed coupon of 16% per year (of these 16%, around 3% is taxable and 13% tax-free)
- At maturity, you get paid back differently based on these scenarios:
- If at maturity no underlying has fell below the barrier level (50% of original price) during the whole lifetime of the product, then you get back your initial investment, so $1000
- if such a barrier event has occured, then
- if the worst performer end up above the stike level (i.e he went down to 50% and went at least above 100% of initial fixing), then you get back your $1000
- if the worst performer ends up below the strike (let’s say the worst performer is netflix, and ends up at 53% of its initial fixing), then you are not paid in cash, but in shares, for an amount of roughly $530. so your loss is 47% of your initial investment, but you did get some fat coupon.
It is hard enough to analyze one company to figure out what it is going to do, but three is almost impossible. Plus you usually do not have the choice of the companies baskets, so your fate is tied to the worst performer of the basket.
Furthermore, don’t dream: these companies usually structure these products so that the price is breakeven for them (i.e given a high volume, they will not lose nor gain money). On the other hand, they add their juicy commissions (around 2% of the subscription, up to 7% sometimes) so that the investment is not that interesting after fees…