Islamic and Income portfolios designed to meet customers’ goals and preferences

Kuwait, 11 January 2021: Gulf Bank is celebrating the fourth anniversary of its digital investments’ platform, WISE Investments, and is introducing new investment portfolios and saving plans to meet customers’ growing financial needs.

Gulf Bank’s WISE Investments is an advisory and portfolio management service that follows an award winning investment strategy, providing Gulf Bank clients with the opportunity to invest in international markets in an easy, transparent and cost-efficient way. The principle of WISE Investments is to invest through international, diversified portfolios while achieving the ideal risk-adjusted return in the long term.

Gulf Bank’s new WISE portfolios will serve customers that prefer Shariah-compliant investments and clients that favor high-yielding portfolios, capitalizing on the current platform’s technology that has shown real value to existing customers.

Commenting on the new products and plans, Dalya Al-Qassem, Head of Investment Management at Gulf Bank, said: “We are thrilled to share our new portfolios, which we have launched to suit our clients’ growing goals and preferences. Through our two new portfolios, the ‘Islamic’ portfolio and the ‘Income’ portfolio, we are proud to offer our customers with a Shariah-compliant opportunity, as well as provide new asset classes, including gold. We strive to offer only top, hand-picked securities from leading fund providers in the world such as “iShare by BlackRock” to guarantee the satisfaction of our growing client base, while fulfilling their unique financial requirements.”

As a low-cost investment solution, the WISE platform continues to prove its advantages over other investment alternatives in the long term. Aside from robust returns, WISE customers enjoy a high level of transparency and constant flexibility with their portfolios which inspired us to introduce new varied saving plans. The objective of the new plans is to encourage the youth to actively manage their finances in an effort to safeguard their futures.

It is worth noting that despite the uncertainty and volatile markets due to COVID-19, Gulf Bank’s WISE portfolios continued to exceed the returns of some of the major markets in the past three years. WISE portfolio with a conservative strategy posted 23% total return since inception in 2017, with an average annualized return of 7.1%. In turn, WISE’s aggressive investment strategy has achieved a return of 38% since its inception with an average annualized return of 10.8%.

Al-Qassem continued: “We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our loyal customers for their confidence and trust in the WISE platform during the most challenging times of the pandemic and unpredictable economic development surrounding international markets. We promise to keep enhancing our investment solutions to provide our clients with only the finest, cutting-edge investment tools and alternatives. Gulf Bank’s CMA-certified Investment Advisors, who are experienced in the local and global markets, will always place their clients’ interests as their utmost priority. They will build a uniquely tailored Investment Policy Statement (IPS) that clearly states each customer’s financial goal, investment horizon and risk appetite in order to assist and guide our customers in attaining their investment goals and grow their wealth.”

To learn more about WISE Investments with Gulf Bank, customers can visit one of Gulf Bank’s branches or log onto https://www.e-gulfbank.com/en/personal/investment/wise. Customers can also use the WhatsApp service on 1805805 for round-the-clock assistance from Gulf Bank representatives, or call the Customer Contact Center on the same number.