KUALA LUMPUR (June 23): The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has connected five additional platforms from six fund management institutions (FMIs) to the EPF’s self-service online investment facility i-Invest to enhance flexibility of online transactions for the EPF's Members Investment Scheme (MIS).

In a statement today, the EPF said the platforms are from Affin Hwang Asset Management Bhd, Kenanga Investors Bhd, RHB Asset Management Sdn Bhd (which shares its platform with RHB Islamic International Asset Management Bhd), Hong Leong Asset Management Bhd and TA Investment Management Bhd.

"There is now a total of 10 FMI platforms directly connected to i-Invest. The previous five pilot platforms are from Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd, Eastspring Investments Bhd, Manulife Investment Management (M) Bhd, Principal Asset Management Bhd and Public Mutual Bhd. FMIs without their own platforms offer investment products on i-Invest through two appointed Institutional UTS Advisers (IUTAs), which are iFAST Capital Sdn Bhd and Phillip Mutual Bhd.

"The EPF has strict guidelines for FMIs to comply with in order to safeguard the integrity of the MIS and the best interest of participating members, as well as to ensure that FMIs carry out their duties ethically and competently.

"i-Invest, launched in August 2019, is a digitally powered platform that provides greater flexibility, functionality and convenience for members to invest, transact and monitor their unit trust investments anytime and anywhere. It also offers tools to compare different unit trust funds offered by FMIs, a consolidated view of members’ investment holdings, and information on cost of investment, historical fund performance as well as required statutory information,” the EPF said.

The EPF said today that up to April 30, 2020, i-Invest had recorded approximately 25,000 transactions worth RM219.3 million.

The EPF said it had previously announced that from May 1, 2020, members investing through i-Invest would not be charged any upfront fee by FMIs for 12 months, enabling members to diversify their retirement portfolio at a lower cost.