THE ECU IS A BETTER LOW-RISK INVESTMENT THAN STANDARD BONDS

Are you a forward-thinking asset manager or institutional investor? The Ecu is the best way to safely invest money.

MOST BONDS HAVE NEGATIVE REAL YIELD

Bonds are the preferred investment of pension funds, insurance companies, fixed income investors... But most European bonds have negative real yield. The only way to achieve some yield is to accept higher risk and lower liquidity of small-cap bonds and other securities, or to invest abroad and take into account the cost of hedging against exchange rate fluctuations. Even at low inflation, a rise in interest rates causes prices of existing bonds to drop and creates problems for investors. A rise in inflation pushes the yield further into negative.

NEGATIVE REAL YIELD OF BANK DEPOSITS

Term deposits also earn interest that is lower than inflation rate. For years, banks kept their interest rates on term deposits negative and the slow increase in interest rates has not kept up with inflation. Corporations that want to park their access liquidity and investors that want cash in bank accounts as a cushion in case of market disruptions are losing money. The solution is a digital green bond with a very high market capitalisation and market liquidity and a variable yield largely immune to the changing central bank interest rates and inflation.

WHAT IS THE ECU?

The Ecu is a redeemable, perpetual green bond. It has no maturity date. It is issued on behalf of multiple electricity producers. Their customers can redeem Ecus by paying invoices for electricity with Ecus. All series are identical and have a book value in euros calculated daily by an algorithm. The variable interest rate depends on inflation and the yield of a basket of bonds. It is not paid to investors. It is added to the Ecu's book value, which is why the book value slowly and predictably rises over time. Ecu's price at securities exchanges reflects the expected future book value.

BENEFITS FOR INVESTORS

Standard bonds are backed by one company, Ecus are backed by many electricity producers, which spreads the risk. All series are identical, which provides very high market capitalisation and a high market liquidity. Ecu guarantees higher yield than sovereign bonds and it includes inflation protection. Rising interest rates cause prices of existing bonds to fall. The variable interest rate of the Ecu prevents negative effects on its price. Ecus can prevented events such as the 2022 UK gilt crisis. Initially, the Ecu will be available only to professional investors.