Search results

Mutual funds, along with other open‐ended instruments such as investment companies, investment trusts, and unit trusts, fall into the category of collective investment schemes (CIS). The OECD estimates that CIS assets in the 16 largest developed countries increased from $3.4 trillion to $15 trillion between 1992 and 2003. The laws governing CIS differ substantially from country to country. This article restates the business principles of fund governance that underlie the 1940 Investment Company Act and compares the U.S. principles with those of other developed countries. In doing so, the article highlights the risk of abuse when different categories of investors entrust their funds to others.

News items like “A whopping 2 lakh gullible investors were cheated…….” amply illustrate the extent of problems and hardships caused by financial frauds related to Ponzi schemes, collective investment schemes (CIS), unregulated deposit schemes, etc. In India, over the years, many Ponzi and unregulated investment schemes have taken place, causing huge economic and financial loss to Indian economy. This paper aims to examine why investment such schemes like Ponzi schemes and CIS become popular, how such schemes got operated in different periods and what could be done to safeguard the interests of investors.

The analysis is done based on secondary data and research work of various researchers, organisation and institutions, which are available in the public domain.

This paper has tried to analyse various characteristics of such fraudulent schemes, like their modus operandi, promotional activity, background of promoters and legal process involved in recouping financial loss of millions of investors. This paper also examines the demand-side factors that are responsible for popularity of those schemes in India. Noting the regulatory changes and other initiative taken by regulatory authorities to control the supply of unregulated investment schemes, this paper indicates potential actions, which could be undertaken to make people aware about the risks and issues related with such fraudulent schemes.

This paper gives an overview about various aspects of unregulated investment schemes, which have duped numerous people at different point of time. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research work is original and has not been published in any other journal.

The purpose of this article is to describe the globalization process of China’s asset management industry.

This article looks at the globalization of China’s asset management industry from a bilateral perspective. On one hand, it analyzes new measures promulgated in China to expand the opening up of capital markets and attract foreign asset management institutions. On the other hand, it gives an introduction on some advisable choices for Chinese asset management companies to invest overseas.

With the promulgation of the Shanghai Guidebook for Overseas Asset Management Institutions among other measures that further liberate China’s financial market, 2020 marks an important era for foreign asset managers. Besides, this article suggests that Luxembourg, Ireland and the UK are ideal European destinations for Chinese asset management companies to invest in.

This article aims to keep foreign asset managers updated of new rules regarding financial market liberalization in China and help them to expand business in Shanghai. This article also gives a brief introduction on the fund industry in Ireland, Luxembourg and the UK, to give those Chinese asset management companies which are considering overseas investment some inspiration.

Practical guidance from experienced lawyers in the practice of foreign investment and capital markets.

Dubious investment schemes by unlisted companies are alluring individual investors at the base of the pyramid to invest money and lose them. The purpose of the abstract is to identify the factors that induce the people at base-of-pyramid (BoP) to invest in fraudulent schemes.

Open-ended interviews of people at the BoP from areas in and around Kharagpur town in West Bengal were conducted. Through open coding, codes, categories and themes were generated.

Interpersonal trusts form the central feature of investment fraud. The personal relationship among the community members helps these schemes thrive. False hopes of higher returns within a short span combined with constraints of accessing banking services is another motivation for the people at the base of the pyramid to fall prey to these schemes. With limited education, they find these investment avenues convenient providing scope to the perpetrators of fraud to exploit them. To curb these dubious schemes to flourish and exploit the people at the BoP, financial inclusion on a large scale is required. Moreover, the government should take steps to educate the mass at the base of the pyramid.

This study offers new insights on the victims of investment fraud in India those belonging to the economically weak groups and lower income groups comprising together as the BoP) of the society.

The global Islamic financial landscape is changing with rapid advances in technology. The increasingly tech-savvy demography is presenting both opportunities and challenges to the industry. With the advances in e-finance and mobile technologies, financial technology (Fintech) innovations emerged by combining the e-finance, Internet, social networking services, social media, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics. Fintech promises to reshape the Islamic financial landscape by improving processes’ efficiencies, cost-effectiveness, increased distribution, Sharīʿah compliance and financial inclusion. As far as the Islamic fund management industry is concerned, AI seems to be the keyword. Islamic fund managers have recently started to incorporate AI and big data analytics into their strategy in the process of making accurate decisions based on facts and figures, which eliminates any biases and personal intuition. This disruption in status quo is raising new issues, new concerns and new exciting opportunities. While disruption may carry negative connotations, the industry players have been embracing the innovation and potential revolution the technology could offer. Thus, the objective of this chapter is to discuss legal aspects of Fintech and its impact on the Islamic fund management industry in Malaysia. This chapter introduces a historical overview of Fintech and its evolution in the Islamic fund management industry. This chapter further provides an overview of the legal and regulatory aspects of Fintech with regards to the industry. Finally, legal issues and challenges are identified and discussed. Being a legal research, this chapter adopts a qualitative method by analysing the relevant literatures on the subject. This chapter is expected to provide an insight into the application of Fintech and its impact on the Islamic fund management industry in Malaysia.

To explain the benefits and the regulations pertaining to Guernsey as a domicile for investment funds.

Explains the benefits of Guernsey as a fund domicile, the regulatory regime, and the types of fund vehicles used in Guernsey, registered and authorized.

Guernsey is one of the world’s largest offshore finance centers, with a thriving funds industry. The benefits of Guernsey as a fund domicile are substantial, including a proportionate, flexible and competitive funds regulatory regime, a stable political and legal structure, and a wealth of first-class fund service providers.

Expert guidance from experienced investment-fund lawyers.

This paper empirically investigates the performance of Islamic funds, which have been praised for weathering the 2008 financial storm relatively well and compares it to a European product designed to protect the most vulnerable of investors, UCITS funds.

This paper builds on 128 time-series regressions using various factor models to analyse the risk-return relationship of 242 Islamic and UCITS funds relative to a market benchmark, over a 10-year period starting January 2006, to capture severe bear and bull market conditions.

Islamic funds do not face a competitive disadvantage arising from their strict compliance with Sharīʿah principles, and their performance and investment style is relatively similar to UCITS schemes.

Islamic funds represent a low risk investment due to their very mild betas. Therefore, when forming part of a diversified portfolio, they can act as a hedging tool against adverse market movements.

Muslim investors are not punished relative to conventional retail investors when following their own beliefs. Other investors can consider Islamic funds in their portfolio allocation, especially those who seek socially and ethically responsible investments.

This paper fills a lacuna in the existing literature, because the sample is made up of Islamic funds established worldwide and includes not only equity, but also fixed income and mixed allocation funds.

Stirred by scant regard for market phases in portfolio performance assessments, the current paper investigates the active versus passive investment strategies under the bull and bear market conditions in emerging markets focusing on South Africa as a case study.

Methodologically, the measures of Jensen's alpha and Treynor index are applied to the monthly returns of 20 funds from January 2010 to June 2022.

The results are enlightening; though they contradict developed market evidence, they are consistent with emerging market trends. The findings show that actively managed funds outperform the market benchmark and passive investing style under bear and normal market conditions. Passive investment strategy outperforms both market benchmark and actively investing style under bull market conditions.

In the face of improved market efficiency, increased liquidity and recent technological impact, the findings of this study have practical application. The study outcomes should inform and update global investors, especially asset managers interested in emerging markets; however, the limitations of the study should also be considered.

While limited studies consider market conditions when comparing and contrasting the performance of passive versus active investing, such consideration is lacking in emerging markets. The current study corrects this literature imbalance.

It has been observed that the practices of corporate governance in Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) do not sufficiently address the rights of unrestricted investment account holders (UIAHs). Given that such account holders are generally the ones who bear the risk of the performance of the investment pool, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate governance practice and the safeguarding of the interests of UIAHs as major stakeholders.

A qualitative research methodology is applied to a sample of 16 managers from 12 Islamic financial institutions from Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE and Malaysia. A theoretical model built around the GC principles featured in the King report underpins the research design.

The findings reveal that the current practices implemented by IFIs in protecting the rights of UIAHs are not effective enough, in the light of standard corporate governance principles. It was also found that lack of responsibility, accountability and independence in decision making, as corporate governance principles, is contributing to the ineffectiveness of current practices in the investigated IFIs.

The major limitation of the research is the small size of the sample used. Hence, the work reported here must be considered as exploratory and a further study employing a larger sample is recommended as future research.

A number of recommendations for corporate governance practice in IFIs aimed at the unique relationship between IFIs and UIAHs are put forward.

The originality and the value of this paper rest on its topic which, to the best of the researchers' knowledge, has not been investigated empirically before. Hence, the authors believe it will be of value not only to academics but mostly to practitioners in IFIs.