Manulife mutual fund sales through insurance agents stopped

Thursday, 03/06/2010 00:00 WIB

Manulife mutual fund sales through insurance agents stopped

Irvin Avriano A.

Bisnis Indonesia

JAKARTA: Bapepam-LK stopped the sales of PT Manulife Aset Manajemen Indonesia mutual fund through the insurance agent service of the holding company, PT Asuransi Jiwa Manulife Indonesia (Manulife Indonesia).

The mutual fund sales of the investment manager was carried out through some insurance agents with mutual fund sales agent representative certificate (wakil agen penjual reksa dana/waperd).

Some mutual fund industry players with that information said the stoppage of sales was given early last month.

"They are not allowed to sell mutual fund through insurance agent," said one mutual fund industry players to Bisnis last week.

Insurance Bureau Chief of Bapepam-LK Isa Rachmatarwata declined to comment. In general, he said the revocation of license stop could have happened to any company. "That is normal in business."

Separately, Investment Management Bureau Chief of Bapepam-LK Djoko Hendratto whom monitors investment products and managers, conceded the ban given to Manulife Indonesia insurance agents to sell the capital market notes of the subsidiary firm.

This is linked to the regulation of Bapepam-LK which currently allows waperd certificate users is only for the company staffer of the licensed mutual fund sales agents (agen penjual reksa dana/aperd).

"Now, the recorded waperd is the aperd staffer whose license could only be given to banks. The others are not allowed yet," he asserted.

He also ensures later the aperd license will surely be developed later but the current execution will be disciplined gradually.

Based on Bapepam-LK regulation No.V.B.2 about The License of Mutual Fund Sales Agent Representative requires that waperd should prove the assignment given by the investment manager or aperd. But here it does not strictly show that it must be aperd staffers.

When confirmed, Head of Sales & Marketing of Manulife Aset Manajemen Steven Suryana conceded the halt of mutual fund sales through Manulife Indonesia insurance agent is imposed by Bapepam-LK. As to him, the halt is to respond to the letter given by the capital market authority on May 6.

However, it does not make the sales of marketing performance of mutual fund product disrupted.

"All distribution and mutual fund sales channels of the other Manulife Asset Management including bank are not affected and keep having normal operation. The mutual fund management of Manulife Asset Management remains stable and produces prominent performance at market," he said by email commenting on the sales halt here.

He also said the company still talked intensively with the capital market authority concerning with the sales halt. He also said the company still continue making dialogue with the capital market authority in response to the call for clarification of the above condition.

"We believe this could be resolved in the near future." (Bisnis/iaa/06)