Canada’s Manulife adds Islamic funds to meet growing demand in North American market
Manulife, a Toronto-based insurance and financial services firm with around $826 billion of assets under management, has added two Sharia-compliant funds to its portfolio to meet growing demand from Canadian Muslim investors.
Manulife Canada Retirement launched the Manulife SP Funds S&P 500 Shariah Industry Exclusions ETF (exchange traded fund) Fund and the Manulife SP Funds Dow Jones Sukuk ETF Fund to its iWatch platform.
SP Funds are part of ShariaPortfolio, a US-based boutique asset management firm specialising in socially responsible and halal investing. The firm also has a presence in Canada.
A key driver behind Manulife’s addition of these Islamic funds is Canada’s sizable and growing Muslim population. Muslims make up around 3.2% (or over one million people) of the nation’s population, according to a 2017 study by Statistics Canada. This is expected to grow to somewhere between 5.6% to 7.2% by 2036.
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