MoneYou has stopped offering its equity-linked MoneYou Rendement deposit series to investors in the Netherlands due to what the company calls “little interest from investors”. The deposit-wrapped product, which could be entered monthly, had a term of one year and allowed investors three ways – from defensive to dynamic – in which to track the Amsterdam Exchange Index (AEX).
The provider of mortgages and savings accounts is the second Dutch player to pull out of equity-linked deposits, after MoneYou’s parent ABN Amro pulled the plug on its AEX Spaarrekening In September 2014, also citing little interest from clients.
But the lack of interest for these products belies their performance: the MoneYou series has offered healthy returns, especially over the past two years, thanks to the performance of the AEX, which closed at 321.2 points in May 2010 when the Rendement series was first launched, but now hovers around 455 points.
“The demand is still there [for equity-linked deposits, particularly those based on the local benchmark index],” said source at a local investment bank.
Although the historic low interest rates mean the potential return for equity-linked deposits is usually capped, they are often used against regular savings accounts which currently offer just 1%. “Our equity linked deposits still offer 2.5%, that’s 2.5 times more,” said the banker. “I suspect [ABN Amro] stopped because they closed their structured products desk.”
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