The risk is always there, but in times of crisis it is better to contain it. And give signs of trust and reliability to investors, increasingly concerned by market trends and looking for transparency. With this goal Unicredit private banking, in collaboration with the world leader of ETFs iShares, has created a new product, capable of combining returns and risk control.
It's called "Green", it involves a minimum investment and will be available from Friday 11 May, after the road show the previous day. “The situation of the financial markets – he confirms the head of Global Marketing of UniCredit Private Banking Andrea Lacalamita – also had an impact on private customers. Nearly two out of three clients have reduced their appetite for risk, one has done so permanently. The demand for simplicity and transparency in investment solutions has grown, as has the need for full awareness of the risks inherent in every choice. The customer today asks first of all to know the risk to his capital. Only then is he interested in performance. It is a prudent attitude consistent with a scenario in which zero-risk investment no longer exists”.
Indeed, according to a 2011 BCG study, 61% of investors have reduced or eliminated their appetite for risk, while one in three confirmed it and only 4% have increased it in the last period. And the main need of private clients is the understanding of the product (for 40% of them), followed by the guarantee of the capital (14%). Only 8% of them, on the other hand, consider the performance of the product or its liquidity to be a priority (3%).
The operation of the new management is as simple and transparent for the customer as the mechanism that adapts the proportions of investments to market trends is sophisticated on a daily basis. The investor, with the support of his private banker, establishes a level of guarantee of his capital between 80 and 90% according to his needs, expectations and risk profile. The team of specialists of the Global Investment Strategy of Unicredit Private
Banking will invest the client's resources accordingly, defining the optimal composition of his portfolio between a conservative and an active line and using the iShares ETFs for investments.
“Green is new – underlines Lacalamita – because, unlike traditional guaranteed products, it is managed by individual customers, who can increase or decrease their investments at any time, change the level of the guarantee or exit without costs. Furthermore, the value of the guarantee is linked to management performance and can only grow. And if the management were to go below the guarantee level, Unicredit integrates the difference into the customer's account in two days".
Also present at the presentation was Emanuele Bellingeri, iShares manager for Italy, who recalled some characteristics of ETFs: “Since their launch in the 90s, ETFs – said Bellingeri – have continued to record steady and healthy growth, also confirmed by the record inflows of over 50 billion Euros in the first quarter of 2012. Given the variety and breadth of exposures accessible through these instruments also in the bond segment, it is now possible to build balanced portfolios entirely of ETFs, with different risk profiles, in order to take advantage of a wide range of diversified sources of return”.
The new management, which therefore aims to combine simplicity, diversification and flexibility thanks to the use of ETFs and a dynamic protection mechanism, after the Italian market it will also debut for Unicredit customers in Austria and Germany.
