Kuala Lumpur, March 19- The Employment Provident Fund (EPF) has issued a revised list of approved fund managers and unit trust funds for its members to invest using their contributions.
The list, which is effective April 1 to March 31, 2015, contains 24 fund managers and 224 unit trust funds. The EPF said 11 unit trust funds from last year’s approved list of 210 were not included in the new list for not meeting the selection criteria following its annual funds evaluation exercise while 14 others were reinstated.
One fund manager was also dropped from last year’s approved list.
“EPF reviews annually the approved unit trust funds through the Fund Management Institutions (FMIs) based on a set of evaluation criteria that focuses on the consistency of fund performance as approved by the Finance Ministry,” said EPF deputy CEO (investment) Mohamad Nasir Ab Latif in a statement yesterday.
Mohamad Nasir said the evaluation process for funds qualification was carried out together with the Federation of Investment Managers Malaysia (FiMM), which represents the unit trust industry.
“The evaluation methodology for qualification, suspension and reinstatement of funds is strictly based on quantitative measurements, which is transparent and eliminates subjectivity,” said Mohamad Nasir.
EPF said as at Dec 31, 2013, 322 funds were approved under the the EPF-Members Investment Scheme (MIS) and out of the 322 funds, 210 funds are qualified to be offered.
The EPF said under its MIS, contributors can transfer per quarter up to 20% of their total savings from their Account 1 that is above the minimum savings level.
Since January, the EPF has set a basic savings level according to age to ensure members have at least RM196,800 in their accounts by age 55.
“We stress that although the EPF approves the funds to be offered under the EPF-MIS, this does not constitute as a recommendation nor assurance on their performance.
“Members always have the option of maintaining their retirement savings with the EPF, which has been able to provide stable returns every year such as the 6.35% dividend announced for 2013,” said Mohamad Nasir.
-FreeMalaysiaToday
