i-Bank launches fund

International Exchange Bank (i-Bank) launched recently iFund Silver, a peso-denominated unit investment trust fund that gives potential investors access to a diversified portfolio of high-yielding fixed-income investments.

iFund Silver pools together the funds of various investors and collectively invests these in various fixed-income instruments such as treasury bonds, notes, bills and commercial papers.

Potential investors can participate in this pool by purchasing iFund Silver units at the prevailing net asset value (NAV) per unit.

The NAV is the price of one unit on a given day.

The minimum initial investment amount is P100,000 and there is a minimum holding period of 90 days after which investors have the option to stay in the fund, sell a portion or all units.

"All the investments of iFund Silver are revalued on a daily basis using their prevailing market prices. This is a process known as marking-to-market which is the new valuation convention required by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for pooled investment funds.

The actual rate of return of an investor will depend on the performance of the underlying investments of the fund," Mike Garcia, who heads the iBank Trust Center, said.

The bank’s trust center is composed of portfolio management professionals tasked to ensure that investors earn the best returns within a given level of risk and a set of pre-defined investment parameters.

The risk and investment policies of iFund Silver are set and amended from time to time by a trust committee composed of the bank’s board directors.

iBank provides investors with monthly and quarterly statements detailing the investments of the trust fund.