KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 24): Malaysia's Employees Provident Fund (EPF) claimed today it is now the first retirement fund in the world to link members’ funds to online investment services via its i-Invest scheme.

In a statement, the EPF said i-Invest, which was launched today, enables eligible members to self-manage their own unit trust funds.

"The self-service online platform is accessible within the members section of i-Akaun and enables eligible members to directly invest a portion of their account 1 savings into unit trust funds offered by approved fund management institutions (FMIs).

"With the launch of i-Invest, the EPF is now the first retirement fund in the world to link members’ retirement funds to online investment services. The beta version of i-Invest was released on 19 August this year, and within a month, nearly 2,500 members have transacted a total value of RM32 million," the EPF said.

In the statement, EPF chairman Tan Sri Samsudin Osman was quoted as saying in his welcoming speech to over 60 FMI representatives here today that the new era with its push for constant innovation has given the EPF the opportunity to disrupt the financial industry and transform EPF's ways to give better value to members.

“i-Invest not only enables eligible members to self-manage their own unit trust funds, it also empowers them with the information to access, analyse, monitor and transact online, effectively providing the opportunity to increase their investing literacy,” Samsudin said.

EPF chief executive officer Tunku Alizakri Alias said in the statement that the EPF noted that digital technology has had a largely positive impact on how people invest, as they are enabled by the rich resource of information that is easily available through the Internet.  

Tunku Alizakri said i-Invest will directly impact over 2.3 million eligible EPF members, and that the availability of investing information on the platform is in line with the Malaysian National Strategy for Financial Literacy 2019-2023.

He said educating the public also means the EPF must be willing to open access to tools and resources to enable greater and faster learning.

“We built i-Invest to empower our members to take charge of their financial future, with tools that will allow them to make informed decisions, starting with their unit trust investments. With these tools, members can track and monitor their investments, and understand which of the investments available best meet their needs. This is an important advantage in today’s increasingly volatile and challenging financial markets.

“To encourage financial literacy among our members, we must first give them the freedom and flexibility to independently manage their own investments,” he said.