Barclays Wealth continues transparency drive

Barclays Wealth is continuing its ongoing transparency drive with the launch of an online valuation document which enables investors to ascertain what they could receive when their protected investment matures.

The Snapshot Valuations Summary, which investors can view online or request as a paper document, is designed to help customers understand what their investment is currently worth; under what - if any - circumstances their capital could become at risk; and what they might receive, based on recent valuations, when their investment matures.

Potential payouts are based on the assumption that the index or asset to which each investment is linked will, at maturity, have remained static since 31 December 2008 (BW's last valuation date). While they are unable to take into account subsequent price movements, these potential maturity figures, which assume an initial investment of £10,000, are designed to help investors understand how their investment is progressing and how market changes might impact their final return.

All information in the summary document is laid out in a table listing Barclays Wealth's ‘live' investments. The table shows:

How the ‘underlying' (index or asset) of each investment has performed since its start date
The price of each investment at the latest valuation date (and previous dates where appropriate)
The potential maturity price
The potential maturity payout (based on £10,000 investment)
The percentage by which each underlying would have to fall (from its level at the valuation date) before capital would become at risk. (This does not apply to products with full capital protection.)
The summary document is issued independently of Barclays Wealth's valuation statement, which is sent to investors twice a year.

Colin Dickie, director, Barclays Wealth, says: "Transparency and education are key planks of our offering and we understand that investors, particularly in such turbulent markets, are anxious to know how their investments are performing. Our Snapshot Valuation Summary is designed to give investors as much information as possible with the end result - maturity - very much in mind.

"Although we cannot guarantee maturity payouts we have sought to indicate what they might be, given current market conditions. We hope that the vast majority of our investors - many of whom will no doubt have suffered substantial losses in unprotected equities - will find the summary reassuring in what continue to be very challenging times."