AsianInvestor has compiled its second annual list of the biggest fund houses by sharia-compliant assets. The largest 50 saw their Islamic assets rise by a quarter last year.
Islamic asset management
Islamic funds – those managed in compliance with sharia law – are an $84 billion-plus industry, according to AsianInvestor research, that is expected to continue to grow.
NBAD Asset Management and Franklin Templeton are eyeing more niche sharia-compliant strategies. This comes as the Islamic alternatives space continues to see swift growth.
AsianInvestor presents its annual list of managers of Islamic funds. Their overall AUM fell 12.2% last year, but alternatives were a bright spot. More analysis of the data is to come.
Islamic banks are not so different from their conventional counterparts, and this needs to be addressed, finds research from The International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance.
The Malaysian $30 billion state pension plans to make all its portfolios 100% sharia-compliant and may reduce its performance target in light of prevailing low yields.
The country's funds industry expanded amid tricky conditions last year, by Securities Commission figures, but investors are told to brace for lower returns in 2016.
Malaysian asset managers' share of global sharia-compliant funds could overtake that of firms based in Saudi Arabia, according to AsianInvestor's annual ranking this year.
Malaysia is set to overtake the Middle East as the global hub for Islamic investments in terms of assets under management. What can Gulf countries do to counter this trend?
Four foreign houses with onshore operations are targeting sharia product launches after rules were relaxed, in a sign that the country is opening up. Regular mutual funds could be next.
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Islamic assets managed in the Middle East shrank overall last year, but sharia alternative investments were a bright spot, finds AsianInvestor research ranking firms by AUM.
Standard Chartered has been named as Maybank Asset Management's trustee for the first sharia-compliant fund on the Asean passporting scheme. Questions hang over when it will be passported outside Malaysia.
Tariq Al Rifai's new organisation will focus on how Islamic finance can help solve debt-related issues in financial markets and encourage the take-up of sharia-compliant investing.
