LOOSE CHANGE

Advent VCT is launched on Monday. Minimum subscription is pounds 3,000, initial costs are capped at 5 per cent and management charges at 2.5 per cent a year. Beeson Gregory's British Smaller Companies VCT is looking for pounds 15m.

New EIS schemes include three further tranches of pounds 1m for Artesian Developments, which specialises in converting period houses into flats for rent and eventual sale. Subscriptions are still open at Cadogan Books, publisher of travel guides, which merged last year with Everyman.

Both Cadogan and Artesian are considering a float on AIM in two years to give investors locked in by the tax shelter an idea of their eventual value. Minimum investment is pounds 1,000 and initial charges are up to 7.5 per cent including commission. Contact 0171-734-8334 for details. Matrix Healthcare is also looking for pounds 1m to invest in established nursing homes.

Bank of Scotland Mortgages Direct has launched a new range of flexible mortgages which allow borrowers to make 10 rather than 12 monthly repayments, to take a six month payments "holiday" without penalty, to speed up repayments and have them credited monthly, to use the account as a cheque account and write up to 12 cheques a year for minimum amounts of pounds 500, and to borrow up to 5 per cent above the original loan as a personal loan, paying the standard mortgage rate and using the proceeds for any purpose. The maximum initial mortgage is 85 per cent of the property value up to pounds 250,000, and the standard variable rate is currently 7.49 per cent.

M&G's new Equity Investment Trust with an annual management charge of 1.25 per cent and no initial or withdrawal charges remains open until 29 February for investors to invest up to pounds 12,000 in a personal PEP, using both the current and next year's allowance. The estimated gross yield is 4.4 per cent.

Save & Prosper is reducing the initial charge on its Extra Income Fund PEP from 2 per cent to zero until 4 April. The fund has attracted pounds 100m since launch in October 1994 and the current return is 6 per cent, although the management charge of 1.5 per cent is deducted from the capital.

Canada Life is launching a corporate bond PEP next Friday, offering a gross yield of 7 per cent to redemption. The minimum investment is pounds 500 or pounds 50 a month. There is an initial charge of 5 per cent, but the annual charge is only 0.75 per cent. The bond will be marketed through the company's 650 consultants.

The investment trust specialist Abtrust is launching a high income PEP with no initial charges and a low management charge of 0.5 per cent, based on its High Income Trust, which raised pounds 18m last November. The current share price is down to 73.5p where they yield 10.8 per cent. Marketing director Piers Currie claims the share price does not reflect dividend growth potential.