South Africa's Standard Bank Offshore Group has launched two new structured products linked to the performance of a range of the world’s major stock markets – one focusing on developed markets and the other on emerging markets.

The two products are called Quantum PLUS 4 and Emerging Accumulator.

The Quantum PLUS 4 divides capital into one-year and five-year fixed term deposits (the Quantum and PLUS deposits respectively), available in sterling, US dollars, euros or Australian dollars.

The Quantum part of the deposit, which is for a one-year fixed term, then pays 5 per cent AER for sterling, euro and US dollar deposits, and 12 per cent AER for Australian dollar deposits.

The PLUS portion, meanwhile, returns 50 per cent of the gains or losses of a main stock market index of the currency country or region; sterling deposits are linked to the FTSE 100, US dollar deposits are linked to the S&P 500, euro deposits are linked to the EURO STOXX 50, and Australian dollar deposits are linked to the S&P/ASX 200.

The second new product, called the Emerging Accumulator, is correlated to the iShares MSCI Brazil Index Fund and the Hang Seng China Enterprise Index. The product pays 11.75 per cent for sterling deposits and 14.5 per cent for US dollar deposits if both indices close at or above their respective start levels at one of the annual review dates, at which point the product terminates. A five-year product, it therefore has the potential to mature after between one and five years.

Capital is protected as long as neither of the indices close below 50 per cent of their start levels during the investment term. If this occurs and the product runs to maturity without paying out, and then goes on to terminate with either of the indices below their respective start levels, capital is reduced in line with the negative return of the worst performing index.