Meezan Bank will facilitate Pak Oman Asset Management Company Ltd (POAMCL) for the development and issuance of Shariah-compliant products. In this regard POAMCL and Meezan Bank have entered a technical services and support agreement on Wednesday.
According to which Meezan Bank will facilitate POAMCL in the Shariah compliant product development and structuring, research & training, conceptualisation, documentation and financial structuring advisory services for their two upcoming Islamic funds.
Managing Director and CEO of POAMCL Ms Hina Ghazanfar and President and CEO of Meezan Bank Irfan Siddiqui signed the agreement, while renowned Shariah scholar Dr Imran Ashraf Usmani who heads the Shariah Advisory Division of Meezan Bank was also present on the occasion.
Ms Hina said that this agreement will help launch Islamic products and tap the potential gap in Islamic mutual fund industry. "The collaboration of Meezan Bank, the pioneer and premium institution in Islamic financial products, and POAMCL with its strong roots in GCC countries and expertise in fund management will be able to cater both emerging Pakistani and developed GCC countries Islamic funds market", she added.
She said that despite the fact the Islamic mutual fund industry is being growing on fast track, however only 6 percent of total mutual funds are Shariah Complaint. POAMCL, subsidiary of Pak Oman Investment Company Ltd, is about to launch two Islamic and one asset allocation open end mutual funds, she informed.
This includes Shariah Compliant asset allocation fund and Shariah Complaint income fund and a conventional asset allocation fund. POAMCL already manages one open end and one closed end fund, she added.
She informed that POAMCL's total assets under management are approximately PKR 3.7bn. JCR-VIS has assigned Management Quality Rating of 'AM3+' (AM-Three Plus) to POAMCL due to the good quality of its management.
Irfan Siddiqui, President & CEO of Meezan Bank, said that this agreement shows the immense growth and potential in the Islamic mutual fund industry and a very good trend of knowledge sharing by the experienced players with the new entrants.
He said that the agreement with POAMCL's fund management experience with Meezan Bank's Islamic Finance knowledge and expertise, the upcoming Shariah Compliant funds of POAMCL will surely provide a very good investment opportunity for earning good Halal returns.
Talking about the bank he said that Meezan Bank is the first and largest Islamic Bank of Pakistan with a 100-branch network presence strategically spread across 31 major cities in the country. The Bank has a cumulative annual growth rate of 60 percent over a period of 5 years and currently enjoys 40 percent market share in the Islamic banking industry, he added.