Long Term Performance
ECU have been managing mortgage debt since 1988. As you can see from the graph below, their performance long term is excellent. If you had a £1,000,000 mortgage managed with them on 'day 1', just fifteen years later your mortgage would have been reduced to zero.
Last 12 months performance
You will notice that after averaging the figures over the past 20 years that they have performed very well.
During the past 12 months trading has been difficult amongst all of the currency managers. ECU have held their hands up and said that they could have done better and that their results were poor. To remedy this they have have strengthened their team for 2008 and brought in Philip Manduca as head of investment together with Nigel Lester as Chairman.
The performance for 2007 just goes to show that this type of mortgage should be treated as a long term investment and not be judged on short term performance. Long term the multi currency mortgage offering is still an excellent opportunity and we look forward to helping you with your requirements in due course.
The above charts have been prepared by ECU using specific assumptions:
Calculation methodology
Since 1988 ECU has managed hundreds of multi-currency loan facilities at over 20 banks, with terms of business that vary and that have evolved over time to meet clients' and their lending banks' requirements.
This performance table stating ECU's Managed Multi-Currency Mortgage track record is prepared from the pro-forma performance of a £1m multi-currency loan managed by ECU. It has been created by taking actual foreign exchange transaction data which, subject to the notes below, is materially consistent with all foreign exchange transactions executed by ECU on all ECU-managed, sterling-based loans throughout the period.
Debt Reduction
'Debt Reduction' is the gross reduction in the size of a sterling loan assumed to start at the beginning of each year resulting from foreign exchange movements. A reduction in the size of a loan is positive performance. Any debt increase from adverse foreign exchange movements constitutes negative performance.
Interest Saving
The 'Interest Saving' is calculated as the difference between the interest which would have been paid on the starting balance of the loan in sterling at a rate of 1.75% above the weekly closing 7-day inter-bank sterling LIBOR rate, and the interest payable in the currency(ies) in which the loan has been denominated at a rate of 1.75% above the weekly closing 7-day inter-bank LIBOR rate applicable to those currencies. An Interest Saving is shown as positive performance. An Interest Loss is shown as negative performance.
Daily interest is calculated at a rate of 1.75% above the weekly closing 7-day inter-bank interest rates for borrowed money in the relevant currencies divided by 360 for all currencies except sterling, which is divided by 365.
Total Performance (gross)
The total gross performance is the sum of the Debt Reduction (or Debt Increase) and the Interest Saving (or Interest Loss), for the period in question not including fees.
Total performance (net of fees)
Total net performance contains the following adjustments, which are intended to represent fairly the total net benefits to a client compared with a sterling interest-only loan paying a rate of 1.75% above the weekly closing 7-day inter-bank sterling LIBOR rate:
Any Interest Saving achieved is put in a notional interest-bearing account.
Switch fees are charged by certain banks, and the loan in this pro-forma performance table has had switch fees of £100 per switch applied. Switch fees are taken from the notional interest-bearing account.
Management fees are charged at a rate of 0.925% p.a. of the value of the original loan, which is based on the current ECU Management Fee scale applicable to ECU's management of a £1m loan. Management Fees are charged monthly in advance, and, for the purposes of creating this performance table, they are deducted from the notional interest-bearing account.
Performance fees are charged annually on the basis of 20% of the total gross performance (if positive), less any switch fees payable to the lender and less ECU's management fees during the period in question. For the purposes of creating this performance table, performance fees are taken from the notional interest-bearing account.
The interest on any resulting positive balance of the notional sterling interest-bearing account is calculated at a rate of 0.625% below the weekly closing 7-day inter-bank LIBOR rate. If the balance is negative, interest is charged at a rate of 1.75% above the weekly closing 7-day inter-bank sterling LIBOR rate.
Underlying Transaction Data
Some of the historical ECU-managed, multi-currency loan facilities were provided by banks that no longer exist or have been sold or merged. As a result, independent verification of historical data is not always possible. ECU's trading instructions to all banks are identical save only three main respects: (a) the amounts vary from bank to bank; (b) although they are given at the same time, it may not have been possible to instruct or execute with all banks simultaneously; and (c) two of the lending banks that historically provided multi-currency loan facilities to ECU's clients were unable to place debt in more than one currency at a time.
The performance data is based on actual foreign exchange transactions executed for clients at Royal Trust Bank of Canada, who were then taken over by Kleinwort Benson Private Bank and subsequently by Kleinwort Benson (Channel Islands) Ltd. ECU believes this to be representative of the capital and interest rate savings of a £1m multi-currency loan managed by The ECU Group plc over these periods. The trading and performance data of ECU's multi-currency debt management programme is periodically reviewed by independent accountants.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
