PETALING JAYA: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has released its revised qualified list of a total of 299 funds from 18 fund management institutions (FMIs) approved under the EPF Members Investment Scheme (EPF MIS), of which 184 funds are qualified to be offered to EPF members for the 2023/2024 period.
The EPF said of these qualified funds, 149 funds, or 81%, are local funds, with 104 funds or 70% being equity funds.
Chief investment officer Rohaya Mohammad Yusof said that for the first time this year, the EPF has included a sustainable responsible investment (SRI) based unit trust fund on the list as part of its commitment to embrace sustainable investing and mainstream the sustainability agenda.
She said the EPF anticipates more SRI funds that meet its evaluation criteria to be listed in the future.
“As an incentive to encourage members’ investment into an SRI-based fund, the sales charge is reduced for transactions made through the EPF’s i-Invest online platform from 0.5% to 0%; or not more than 1.5% for transactions via agents,” she said in a statement.
The 299 funds approved under the EPF-MIS are evaluated annually based on the EPF’s established criteria approved by the Finance Ministry.
The two qualifying criteria for funds evaluation include the consistency of performance and its relative performance against the benchmark.
The qualifying threshold set for these criteria is reviewed from time to time to ensure only funds with the highest quality are listed.
The EPF said that under the EPF MIS, members are given the option to invest with the FMIs up to 30% of the amount in excess of their EPF Account 1 savings.
This includes investing with unit trust management companies and private mandate companies, depending on their eligibility based on the Basic Savings quantum.
Rohaya said since the launch of the i-Invest platform in 2019, around RM2.15bil had been transacted as at December 2022.
“We encourage members to take advantage of i-Invest as it provides lower upfront sales charge compared to other channels, greater flexibility, functionality and convenience for members to invest, transact, and monitor their investment funds across the FMIs,” she said.
She added that members will be able to access information on the applicable cost of investment and the historical performance of funds.
The Fund Performance Benchmark feature in the platform also enables members to compare the performance of selected funds against their benchmark performance, she added.
Members are advised to exercise caution when making any investment decision and seek the right information or professional advice before committing to any transactions. — Bernama
