Structured products, which promise equity-like performance without the dangers of buying equities, were once the investment vehicles of choice for wealth managers with risk-averse clients. But following a series of high-profile blow-ups involving products backed by Lehman Brothers, the failed US bank, investors have been forced to test their assumptions – and the impact has led some wealth managers to introduce new safety measures.

Yves Bonzon, chief investment officer of Pictet, the Swiss private bank, refines the analogy to grand prix motor racing – appropriately enough for a company serving clients of exceptional wealth in European tax havens. To him, the experience of investing in products structured around complex equity derivatives is just too synthetic. “It’s like a Formula One driver who, rather than driving on circuits, does it on a PlayStation,” Bonzon says. “You no longer have reaction of the road in your wheels.”