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BANKING & FINANCE
Street’s full range of financial services
to corporate clients such as investment
servicing; investment research and
trading; investment management;
and support for clients through
client servicing and relationship
management. Additionally, State Street
acts as a gateway for international
fund managers interested in Brunei for
investment opportunities.
UOB Asset
Management
Headquartered inSingapore,UOBAsset
Management (UOBAM) established
its Brunei subsidiary called UOBAM
Brunei (UOBAM (B)) in 2007. UOBAM (B)
offers a range of investment solutions
including unit trust products across
asset classes and geographies to meet
different investment needs and goals.
Its investor education programme
for institutional clients includes
competency-building initiatives such
as its annual CharteredFinancial Analyst
preparatory classes and investment
seminars to keep clients abreast of
the latest market developments and
investment trends.
In 2022, UOBAM (B) won the Best
Institutional House (Brunei) and Best
Investor Education (Brunei) award
at the Asia Asset Management 2022
Best of the Best Awards. This is the
first time UOBAM (B) received the Best
Institutional House (Brunei) award,
while the company previously won the
Best Investor Education (Brunei) award
in 2019 and 2020.
The firm was recognised for its
efforts in helping institutional clients
meet investment priorities, such as
environmental, social and governance
(ESG) investing, and offering bespoke
trainings, such as visits to offices in
UOBAM’s network, to expand their
knowledge on various aspects of fund
management. The firm also taps on its
regional network of experts across nine
regions in Asia such as ESG specialists,
multi-asset experts, and fund of hedge
fund experts, to offer timely and
accurate investment opportunities to
clients.
Sukuk Al-Ijarah
In Islamic finance, one of the ways
for market participants to raise
capital is through the issuance of
sukuk
.
Sukuk
are Syariah-compliant
financial products that create returns
similar to fixed-income instruments,
like bonds. However,
sukuk
does not
collect interest and this has resulted
in
sukuk
’s growing popularity not just
in economies with Islamic banking but
also in the global market.
Similar to conventional bonds, there
are many types of
sukuk
depending
on their structures. One of the most
common structures is
Al-Ijarah
, which
is a form of rental or lease contract.
The first corporate
sukuk
in Brunei
was issued by Brunei LNG Sdn Bhd in
2005. The following year, the Brunei
Government launched the short-term
Sukuk Al-Ijarah
programme.
Through the Brunei DarussalamCentral
Bank (BDCB), the Brunei Government
has been issuing short-term
Sukuk
Al-Ijarah
. In November 2022, AMBD
announced the successful pricing of
its 212
th
issuance of
Sukuk Al-Ijarah
securities. With this issuance, the
Brunei Government has thus far issued
over BND15.84 billion worth of
Sukuk
Al-Ijarah
securities since the maiden
offering on April 6, 2006. The total
holding of the Brunei Government
sukuk
outstanding as at November 10,
2022 stood at BND305 million.