Nationwide Guaranteed Equity Bond launched

A Nationwide Guaranteed Equity Bond (GEB) has been launched which promises investors returns equivalent to 100 per cent.

The Nationwide GEB also guarantees investors 80 per cent of any FTSE 100 index growth at the end of the bond's five-year term.

Nationwide claims that its GEB compares favourably with deposit-based GEBs from other providers, featuring the added bonus of having no tax to pay for nil, starting and basic rate tax payers.

In addition, customers who invest in the GEB can benefit from an early investor bonus offer, which pays 0.4 per cent for investments made before July 10th, 0.3 per cent for investments made before July 24th and 0.2 per cent for investments made before August 7th.

Nationwide says that its GEB should appeal to people who want to invest in the stock market but are worried about the risks.

"Investors have the potential to benefit from stock market growth without putting their original investment at risk," explained Clive Parkinson, managing director of Nationwide Investments.