In April 2003 we launched, jointly with The Co-operative Bank, our new Guaranteed Stock Market Deposit Bond. Research we conducted during 2003 showed that instability in the stock market was causing individuals to rethink the way they invest their money, and therefore we designed our new deposit bond to give customers the benefits of any growth in the stock markets with no capital risk to their initial cash investment.
For those customers wanting and able to accept some risk in return for higher potential earnings, the CIS UK Income With Growth Trust, relaunched in August 2003, invests in a diverse portfolio of UK securities, with the aim of providing an income, with some capital growth, over the medium to long term. Alternatively, CIS' new Corporate Bond Income Unit Trust, which was launched in October 2003, gives those investors who have a more cautious attitude to risk the opportunity to generate monthly income from their savings.
At a time when the size of the ethical banking and investment market is on the increase, we offered investors the opportunity to put their ethics into action with the addition to our unit trust portfolio in December 2003 of our FTSE4Good Tracker Unit Trust. The product tracks the performance of the FTSE4Good index, which includes those companies that can be considered 'best practitioners' in corporate social responsibility issues, including environmental sustainability and human rights.
In partnership with the Co-operative Group, CIS launched the Co-operative Funeralcare Pre-Payment Plan in April 2003. This product enables customers to invest a single lump sum to pay for their funeral, chosen from a range of Co-operative Funeralcare options. Sales through our network of CIS financial advisers are already very encouraging.
