Swiss bank offered investors to stake on US presidential elections

The Swiss bank Julius Baer has decided to launch a new product in honor of the upcoming US presidential election. The bank offers its clients to buy notes from the securities of leading American companies for a total value of $40 million. The profit from the purchase will directly depend on the election results.

The bank divided the assets of 30 American corporations into two portfolios. The first, aka “democratic”, contains the shares of such companies as Estee Lauder, Coca-Cola, McDonalds and others. The second portfolio — “republican” — contains securities of technology giants Amazon, Alphabet, Visa, etc. Julius Baer’s management explained the idea by the fact that depending on the party whose representative wins the election, the profitability of certain companies will increase or decrease.

The product is designed for one year with payment of commissions at the end of the term.

Structured products are a lucrative business for banking organizations. In the third quarter of last year, investors purchased and sold shares for about $97 billion. It is possible that other banks will soon release similar products as well.