Winner: HSBC Amanah
HSBC Amanah continues to be the leading Islamic fund manager, with about $4 billion in assets under management. The group holds the funds in 24 different mutual funds in several different geographies including the GCC countries, Egypt, Lebanon, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and the UK. Hong Kong was also added to this list in December 2007 with the launch of the first Islamic investment fund. Islamic fund managers for HSBC have had a series of innovative products at their fingertips in the past 12 months. HSBC Amanah is the only fund manager to offer equity funds based on an active quant investment strategy with the help of in-house expertise from active quant specialist Sinopia Asset Management. There are two funds on offer – Global Equity and Global Emerging Markets – based on active quant strategy. HSBC Amanah was also the first to introduce investment-linked deposit products in the Middle East. The clients also have the option to achieve higher returns on deposit products while securing the safety of their capital. There are also investment-linked policy funds for takaful available. HSBC was the first to launch investment-linked takaful products in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.
The firm has also taken steps to introduce Shariah-compliant discretionary portfolios in India. The product is expected to go live soon.
