"Structured products that purport to offer equity-like returns without equity market risk are of no use to long-term investors, two authoritative studies have concluded," the article begins.

The studies, by Barclays Capital and ABN Amro/London Business School, fly in the face of what the banks are doing with their structured products businesses. Both have upped investment in their franchises in recent years, and both have brought to market some innovative solutions, for both the retail and high net worth markets. Just click on our awards section to see just how creative the banks have been, and remember that we don't give awards for shoddy products that are of "no use" to investors.

I have to say I'm surprised the story (available here) made it to the front page of FT Fund Management (FTFM). After all, we've heard these arguments before.

What's more nowhere in the article is the phrase 'portfolio diversification' mentioned - and we all know that such a strategy, simple though it may be, is what continues to drive growth in the structured products markets. Growth is also coming from institutional investors (as well as the ultra high net worth segment) who are presumably well aware of the various benefits and disadvantages of investing in the markets.

While ABN Amro and Barclays Capital continue to market their structured products offerings, and tell us that they are also useless investments, I'm glad to say there are no Chinese walls preventing me from referring to the services of Structured Products magazine.

So I'd strongly encourage you to read this article, by Jim Goddard-Jones, now a director at UK distributor NDF, espousing the benefits of structured products.

In the article (which was published in April 2006, so long before these studies came out) Jim notes how some investors may view structured products with suspicion. He also notes how such investments provide all important portfolio diversification - a phrase that probably should have made it to the cover of FTFM.