TheStar
KUALA LUMPUR: Seven fund houses have appointed Kuwait Finance House (M) Bhd (KFH) as their Islamic unit trust distributor, with an estimated total assets under management of RM6.6bil.
Country head of commercial, retail and consumer banking Ab Jabar Ab Rahman said this move would enable the bank to increase its fee-based income.
“We are keen to grow the business. It is something that we see a lot of potential in,” he told reporters after the launch of KFH's Priority banking and its appointment as an Islamic unit trust distributor yesterday.
The fund houses are Affin Fund Management Bhd, AmInvestment Bank Group, CMS Trust Management Bhd, ING Funds Bhd, OSK-UOB Unit Trust Management Bhd, Pheim Unit Trusts Bhd and Prudential Fund Management Bhd.
Jabar said KFH would collaborate with the fund houses to offer some 20 Islamic unit trust funds, selected based on their consistent track record and performance reflected in the top quartile of the unit trust fund industry.
KFH's involvement in unit trusts would be part of the phased rollout of its retail banking expansion programme and Jabar said it would continuously explore other fund management companies on the possibility of being a distributor for funds, or developing a unit trust, which would be exclusively sold via KFH.
While the funds would initially be offered locally, he did not discount the possibility of offering them elsewhere, including other Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
“It depends on how fast we can grow this business locally. We will see if the funds attract not only Malaysians but Middle Eastern investors as well,” he added.
KFH's Priority banking aims to tap the mass affluent market and high net-worth individuals who seek consistent rate of return on their investments.
Head of retail and consumer banking Baldev Singh Bhullar said KFH was targeting 200 clients for its Priority banking services this year. At present, it has five clients since its soft launch on April 8.
“The launch of KFH Priority banking and our appointment as a Islamic unit trust distributor enables the bank to successfully leverage on our ability to cross-sell products and services to tap into a new market segment,” Jabar said.
On new branches, Jabar said KFH expected the number to increase to seven this year with one branch slated to open in Penang by the third quarter. Currently it has four branches.
“We plan to open one branch each in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu by year-end,” he said, adding that KFH planned to have Priority banking centres in all its branches.
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