Islamic Funds

John A. Sandwick — a globally recognized specialist in Islamic Asset Management — offers banks, brokerages and investment companies the opportunity to create, manage and distribute Islamic mutual funds of their own.

THE MARKET

Islamic Asset Management Consulting is a turnkey service that allows a bank to remain competitive in the fast-moving Islamic banking industry. Few banks anywhere offer a full range of Islamic funds, let alone discrete funds that investors are demanding today.

Today there is enormous demand for Islamic mutual funds that meet global standards for performance, transparency, reporting and administration. Institutional investors (pension funds, takaful insurance companies, corporate and bank treasuries and government agencies) as well as family offices, High-Net-Worth Individuals and the general investing public always prefer sharia-compliant funds when they have the choice.

THE PRODUCTS

• Murabaha or trade finance funds
• Sukuk funds
• Listed equity funds
• Commodity funds
• Real estate funds, including REITs
• Long-term fixed-asset funds (ships, medical equipment, construction equipment, etc.)

ISLAMIC ASSET MANAGEMENT SERVICES

• Identifying those fund sectors in highest demand today among the client’s institutional and private customers (cash, fixed income, equity, alternative investment, real estate)
• Structuring a fund to meet world standards, including securing the fatwa most appropriate for the product
• Engaging and contracting all Service Providers, including legal counsel, administrator, custodian, sharia advisor and auditor, plus where necessary any specialist Service Providers (for real estate, shipping, medical equipment, equities, sukuk, or other underlying asset classes)
• Writing offering memorandum, sales brochures, subscription forms and preparing websites
Processing the fund through regulatory approvals
• Pre-marketing and marketing funds through conventional and e-communication modes
• Setting up fund administration, from subscriptions to redemptions to Net Asset Value declarations
• “Managing the managers,” or overseeing the professional management of the fund, including peer performance review, ongoing sharia compliance and audits
• Preparation and distribution of monthly or quarterly fund reports, including NAV declarations
• Training private banking and asset management departments in the sale, marketing and presentation of Islamic mutual funds to customers, and integrating the Islamic mutual fund(s) into existing asset management departments