Career conversations: Pioneering Islamic wealth management for retail clients

I was pretty sure in my education that going towards a conventional financial institution involved in the process of transactions with interest-based elements was a completely no go area for me. Therefore, I explored the possibilities of Islamic finance. I studied it during my Finance and master’s degree and got to know more about Islamic finance. Luckily enough, I got the job into the only Islamic financial services provider for wealth management services. My name is Faraz Younus Bandukda, and I am the Chief Executive at Al Hilal Securities Advisors.

After completing my master's, I joined one of the leading asset management companies in Pakistan as a management trainee, where I was looking after the equity research and product development function.

While I was working, my supervisors, who happened to be CFA® Charterholders, guided me towards the CFA Program. The two primary reasons were about credibility and trustworthiness. It was of utmost importance for me to add the CFA® charter to my profile while working in the investment management industry. The clients and potential clients as well as investors look forward to investment advisors who have the integrity and trustworthiness while seeking investment advice.

When I started my professional career, I got to know the majority of the investment service providers in Pakistan were providing services to a set of clients who were large and high net worth clients. Majority of the investment service providers were not interested in providing these services to small, token-sized investors.

Once I identified this gap in the market that providing service to retail mass of Pakistan was very important and it was a good business opportunity, I resigned from my existing job and began my own venture, where we provide wealth management solutions to Sharia-conscious investors across different asset classes.

I've always noticed the difference that once a client comes to know that I am a CFA® Charterholder, it adds to my integrity, my trustworthiness and credibility. Recently we introduced some international best practices which are recommended by the CFA Institute into our business. One of them primarily was the introduction of the asset manager code of conduct for investment management decisions.  

This enhanced our abilities to provide investment management service to our clients and the reporting standards were increased as well. This particularly provided the investors with the added confidence that the fund managers were integral as well as trustworthy. And this helped us to grow our business in a better and professional manner.