KUALA LUMPUR: Wahed Invest, a Shariah-compliant investment company licensed by the Securities Commission Malaysia, aims to revolutionise the mindset on investment via digital engagement.
Its executive director Mohd Izzat Fadhli said that the younger generation nowadays especially those who are involved in the gig economy have a very uncertain future job security as well as savings.
“The majority of them do not have long-term security for their retirement as they are not contributing to the Employees Provident Fund or even the Social Security Organisation (Socso).
“We hope that Wahed Invest can be a platform for the underserved community that would want to invest for the long term with a low entry fee of only RM100 and no lock-in period,” he told Bernama in an exclusive interview.
He added that Wahed Invest hopes to remove the barriers to investment and portfolio management that were traditionally reserved for high net worth investors.
“There has been a stigma that investment is expensive and difficult. We hope to change that mindset by providing the access to capital markets to the masses, especially to those with little financial knowledge which had hindered them from efficient wealth management,” he said.
Izzat explained that clients of Wahed Invest will have exposure to a wide range of investment assets, including Sukuk, gold and Malaysian as well as US stocks through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and unit trust funds (UTFs), with their allocations comprising six diversified and unbiased Shariah-compliant portfolios depending on the clients’ risk tolerance.
“We have a full-time Shariah board to guide us in determining that the investments are 100 per cent Shariah-compliant. For local stocks, the Shariah screening is done by the Shariah Advisory Council of the Securities Commission while screening for foreign stocks is done by each fund’s Shariah advisors,” he said.
The investment returns, he said, would depend on the risk portfolio that the client chooses.
“Based on their past performance over the last nine years, less risky portfolios have yielded between five to six per cent return while higher-risk portfolios have yielded between 10 to 11 per cent return,” he said.
Izzat added that as investors age, their risk tolerance would change. A younger investor tends to take more risks and therefore is suitable for higher-risk portfolios. However, 10 years down the road, their behaviour or goals would be different, and a change to lower-risk portfolios is prudent to account for their new risk tolerance. This change can be undertaken by clients simply by reaching out to Wahed Invest.
Wahed Invest, which started in the United States and is licensed with the SEC, has successfully obtained their regulatory licence from the Securities Commission Malaysia to offer the first Islamic digital investment investment services.
“By introducing a platform that provides fund management services through digital means, Wahed Invest believes that they can help the country to increase financial inclusion by easing the access to anyone wanting to invest in a Shariah-compliant and ethical manner,” he said.
Wahed Invest, the world’s first digital Shariah-compliant investment management services provider, is spreading its wings to the Asia Pacific region, making Malaysia its regional hub.
The US-based Shariah-compliant investment company has chosen Malaysia as their base due to its strength in Islamic finance as well as a clear framework on digital investment. – Bernama
