Gibraltar FSC Launches Investment Guide For Retail Investors

by Carla Johnson, Investors Offshore.com

23 March 2006

The Gibraltar Financial Services Commission has published a guide to investment products and investment services aimed at helping retail investors steer through the maze of investment products and financial instruments.

The eight-part guide contains advice and guidance on investment services, investing, investment types, property purchases, pension, and how to protect yourself.

The guide provides basic information in plain English to investors on a range of investment instruments, from relatively simple low-risk assets to more complex and riskier financial products, including life insurance, shares, bonds, collective investment schemes, contracts for differences, forward contracts, futures, options and spread betting.

The guide also informs investors of the potential pitfalls of investing and suggests questions to ask of their financial advisors.

“Experience tells us that consumers may sometimes invest in particular products without knowing what exactly they are investing in, or, for example, whether their capital is protected or the period during which the money will be tied up," Heidi Bocarisa, Head of Investment Services Supervision at the FSC was quoted as explaining by the Gibraltar Chronicle.

"The guide is simple and informative, and we trust will be of good use to the consumer," she added.

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