Structured investments trade body the UK Structured Products Association has published a series of standardised product ‘codes’, which it says will help financial advisers compare different members’ products more easily.
The codes are broken down into four main sectors: protected growth, non-protected growth, protected income and non-protected income.
UK Spa said they are designed as a reference guide, in order to help advisers and investors understand what the different types of product are, along with their key features.
The body has twelve members and works with IFAs, the regulator and other trade bodies to help drive the development of the structured products market.
Investec Structured Products is one of the industry body’s members and its head of intermediary sales Gary Dale stated that the firm has already started including information on the codes in its adviser-facing overview document and website.
“We are united in our goal of transparency in the structured products industry – ensuring that financial advisers can draw on clear, accessible and uniform language across different distributors.
“In turn, this means that advisers can subsequently offer their clients accurate information about their investment options.”
Zak de Mariveles, UK Spa chairman, commented that within the industry, often the same type of product will be marketed under a different name by different providers.
“By introducing the product codes, we hope the comparison between these products becomes easier.”
peter.walker@ft.com
