The real winners in structured products

I saw an article in a newspaper, written in November 2006. A summary of the key points:

* structured products have taken Asia by storm
* retail and private banks collected millions of dollars in embedded fees
* more Asians bought these products, compared to Europeans and Americans
* some fundamental questions of the nature of these products are not answered
* the risks are not clearly explained
* prospectuses are couched in financial jargon and are of little help
* most products have a fairly lengthy lock-in
* the sure winners are the investment banks and distributors who always collect a spread, whether the investor wins or loses.