Christopher Chin-Loy, (left), assistant vice-president at Scotia DBG Investment, listens to the point being made by Sam Husain, investment advisor of Scotia Private Client Group Toronto, Canada during the Scotia DBG Investments mutual fund seminar, 'Growing and Protecting Your Wealth' at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston on April 30. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Scotia DBG Investments will in four months roll out a new mutual fund product in Trinidad, but participation in the named Caribbean Income Fund will be denied Jamaicans until the Financial Services Commission (FSC) signs off on the product.

The Trinidad and Tobago Securities Exchange Commission, the equivalent to the FSC, has approved the fixed-income fund.

Scotia DBG will offer the units starting September, Chris Chin-Loy, Scotia DBG's assistant vice-president of brokerage and structured products, said last week at a mutual funds seminar.

Currency diversification

But as to the pricing of the units, that, Chin-Loy said Tuesday, would be determined at the launch, but would be denominated in US dollars to provide clients with a "currency diversification option".

"The fund was capitalised and funded more than two years ago in anticipation of approval for sale by the FSC as well as the TTSEC, regulators of the two initial target markets of the fund," Chin-Loy told Wednesday Business on Tuesday.

The CIF is "strictly" a fixed-income fund, and will be managed, he said, by Scotia DBG Fund Managers, formerly the DB&G Unit Trust Managers. The fund currently holds money market short term securities, as well as longer term sovereign and corporate debt instruments of Caribbean countries and companies, said Chin-Loy.

He added that Jamaican investors will be able to purchase the fund upon approval by the FSC.

Assuming that the CIF is launched as planned, it creates for Scotiabank's investment arm a 44th product, 36 of which are creations of Ray Chang's CI Investments Limited, a Canadian mutual fund.

Another five are funds under the Scotiabank brand, and two are unit trust products, Chin-Loy said.

Further growth

Scotia DBG is however looking to grow its mutual fund segment even further. The investment company, through its wider connection to Scotiabank Inter-national, can also offer funds managed by units of Canada's number three bank.

"There now exists a newly formed unit within the company that will look at developing structured investment products which will be targeted towards larger, more sophisticated investors who have the appetite for risk that these products traditionally carry," Chin-Loy said.

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