Maybank in Singapore has issued a Shariah-compliant structured deposit offering exposure to a basket of commodities.
Prestige Structured Deposit is a three-year deposit with growth based on the SGAM AI Baraka Commodity Index, an index comprising 30 Shariah shares from the DJ Islamic Market World Index within the basic materials, oil and gas sectors.The product returns capital at maturity plus participation in the rise of the index over the term, multiplied by a profit-sharing ratio of 80% if the deposit is below SGD500k ($345k), and 90% if it is above this amount. Any remaining profit is shared with the Malaysian bank. Profit sharing or ‘Mudharabah’ is one of the main tenets of Islamic financial products.
“Shariah-compliant products are rare in Singapore,” said Vincent Lawrence, Maybank’s head of treasury and dealing in Singapore. “What we are trying to do is provide an opportunity for the local people to invest.” He added that Singapore has a relatively small Muslim population compared to Malaysia, its close business counterpart, so this deposit will enable the bank to determine local demand for Shariah-complaint products.
Asked about future Shariah-compliant offers, Lawrence said that at this stage he would prefer to proceed on a step-by-step basis.
This product is available in Recent Additions (Singapore).
