Bonds vs Deposits

[hand_m]

Apologies if I am posting this in the wrong forum. I have a sizable sum of money with Bank of Ireland in a product called 'BOI Callable Bond Series 7' which is due to mature in March 2012. It says it has a Capital Guarantee but I'm wondering what the risks are. I really wanted a fixed interest deposit account but was convinced by the BOI salesman that this was a better option. As far as I know there is nothing I can do as it is locked in until maturity in 2012.
I assume this is covered under the capital guarantee as long as BOI is solvent. However as the Government guarantee only covers deposits would this be covered if BOI go to the wall.? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[PMU]

I would think the capital guarantee refers to getting the par value of the bond back when it matures. But it might be more prudent, if you have not done so already, to confirm the conditions under which the bond is callable.

As for the Government guarantee, this guarantees eligible liabilities of up to five year maturity by a participating institution from the date it joined the scheme until 31 December 2011. So, as BoI joined the scheme on 11/1/10 (i.e. it is a participating institution), you need to confirm if your bond is an ‘eligible liability’ under the Credit Institutions (Eligible Liabilities Guarantee) Scheme 2009. In brief, the types of covered liabilities under the ELG scheme are: senior unsecured certificates of deposit; senior unsecured commercial paper; other senior unsecured bonds and notes, and other forms of senior unsecured debt. Even where your bond is an ‘eligible liability’ you need to confirm if it is guaranteed under the scheme. For this to happen, BoI must have a ‘guarantee certificate’ for the bond or for the programme under which the bond was issued. These certificates are issued by the NTMA, which operates the scheme. So you need to get confirmation from BoI if your bond is an eligible liability and if the BoI has obtained a guarantee certificate for it, issued pursuant to the Credit Institutions (Eligible Liabilities Guarantee) Scheme 2009. There is a lot of info on this on the NTMA web site. [broken link removed]