Les OPCVM garantis : quels en sont les principes de fonctionnement et quels risques font-ils peser sur le marché ?

Abstract

Guaranteed mutual funds : what are their operating principles and what are the risks incurred by the market ? Ever since their beginning in France in the late 80's, guaranteed products have continued to grow meeting many investors' security needs. A second generation of « more exotic » products has followed after the first generation of guaranteed products, which offered subscribers a simple indexation to CAC 40's index performance between two given dates. Such new products had two objectives : to face decreasing interest rates which made guaranteed mutual funds commercially less attractive and to make their performance less dependent on their maturity dates. After having explained the characteristics of guaranteed products and described new trends, we shall analyse the risks to which stock markets may be exposed to on account of these mutual funds. Can they aggravate market unbalances in the event of a crisis or, on the contrary, is their impact only marginal ? While guaranteed products necessarily increase market volatility, since market players amplify both upward and downward movements to hedge themselves, we consider this a minor effect when compared to the advantages they provide.