Shares for children

[Scrunch]

Yeah I understand there were prizes, but typically what would the annual return have been? More than a term deposit?

There was a chance when returns on TD's were a lot higher than how (so a lot more RWT would have been paid on the TD alternative). ANZ investing in a mix of TD's and government stock guarantees that expected returns are less than TD's in a low interest rate environment with the extremely high management fee that applied (Stuff quoted 1.28%!!). With higher TD rates of at least 4%, bonus bonds could have had an expected return equal or better than TD's but that would depend on what return ANZ got on the invested monies and therefore the prize fund compared to the TD options available (and of course whether you won prizes).

4% less 33% tax is 2.68%
4% less 1.28% management fees is 2.72%

With TD rates around 1.4% this becomes 1.4% less 33% = 0.94% from TD's. Bonus bonds are 1.4% less 1.28% = 0.12%. Add some government stock at under possibly under 1% into the funding mix and ANZ doesn't have the money to even generate a prize pool after paying its management fee.