It’s hardly surprising that one of the five was in fact a West LB product, its Capital Protected Income Plan. But treating the email as thoughtful analysis, rather than product promotion masquerading as market data, I have to admit that I have, perhaps for the first time in my career as a journalist, appreciated an email from the flacks.

“Investors [in the UK] have little choice when it comes to structured products if they want income without fear of losing their capital,” West LB’s London-based head of structured products, Maurice Wren, was quoted in the email. “Despite the recent base rate rises [by the Bank of England], interest rates remain historically very low, and we are seeing a demand for a wider range of income producing, capital safe products.”

One of the reasons that lenders are dragging their feet, argues Wren, is that income plans are inherently more complex to structure and manufacture than their growth counterparts. “They require much more than simply buying a FTSE 100 call, and lenders seem to be put off by the greater complexity involved in getting the product specification right,” he says.

Of course, Wren is not the only person to criticise the UK markets plain vanilla offering and it is true that the UK market lags behind many other European markets in areas of innovation. Given the majority of the structuring houses have major bases, if not their head office, in London, the lack of innovation in the UK market is an anomaly.

The email got me thinking: are the 627 offerings in the UK driven by investor demand for simple growth structures or are the distributors not offering investors the right products? Are distributors missing out a trick by not offering income products?

I then also remembered that we covered some of these thoughts back in July 2006 (click here), not that I’m indulging in product promotion. But my point stands: finally a PR firm which knows how to write a press release.

Daniel Sheehan, Staff Writer, Structured Products