Australia’s Hejaz to launch Islamic Financial Compliant Global Ethical Fund

11th June 2017

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Global Ethical Fund

Article Overview

1 Global Ethical Fund
- 1.1 Ethical Overlay
- 1.2 Growing Australian Muslim community

Australia’s Hejaz Financial Services intends to launch a Global Ethical Fund, its first fund offering retail investors exposure to Australian equities, international equities, REITs, Sukuk, gold and Islamic term deposits in a Shariah compliant manner. In doing so, it will join Crescent Wealth and First Guardian in providing an Islamic retirement fund to the Australian market.
The investment universe of the fund will be screened for Shariah compliance and constructed in accordance with AAOIFI guidelines by San Francisco-based IdealRatings.

Ethical Overlay

Global Ethical Fund applies an ethical over-lay to ensure compliance with Shari’ah ethical investment principles. These principles create negative screens which exclude investment assets based upon the nature of their business activities and their failure to meet financial thresholds relating to debt, liquidity, and income.

Growing Australian Muslim community

Hakan Ozyon, CEO of Hejaz Financial Services and Chairman of the Islamic Financial Services Council of Australia, said: “The Australian Muslim community has experienced rapid growth since the 1990s, both in number and wealth. We are very well positioned as pioneers of the Australian Islamic Financial Services Industry, offering a comprehensive suite of financial products and services which are not only Shari’ah compliant, but deliver on performance and positive outcomes. The Global Ethical Fund is the first of a series of funds and products that we will be launching in next 24 months. These funds and products will further revolutionise the Australian Islamic Financial Services landscape and cement our position as leaders of this industry. We have our sights firmly set on expansion beyond the Australian shores, into the Asia Pacific and beyond. We are pleased to partner with a fellow industry leader, IdealRatings, who provide Shari’ah Ethical Screening to our investments. As the Senior Portfolio manager of Global Ethical Fund, it simplifies my investment selection process and ensures the Shari’ah compliance of our fund.”