Reliance Money sets up shop in Malaysia

RELIANCE Money, the largest broking house in India, has entered Malaysia's financial services market through a business collaboration with Infinity Financial Solutions, a local major financial products and services distribution company.

Reliance Money director and chief executive officer Sudip Bandyopadhyay said the company will be launching its portfolio management services (PMS) and other services in Malaysia soon.

"Reliance Money's PMS in Malaysia would be offered at a threshold level of as low as US$50,000 (RM174,000)," he said in a statement made available to Business Times.

Bandyopadhyay said this is the first such initiative by an Indian broking and distribution company to offer a bouquet of financial products and services to non-resident Indians (NRIs) in Malaysia.

"This is our first move to reach out to the large base of NRIs in Malaysia with our unique, cost-effective and efficient bouquet of products and services.

"Our presence in Malaysia will complement efforts to have a larger role in this region," he said, adding that the move is part of Reliance Money's plans to expand its global footprint.

Reliance Money provides customers with access to equities, equity and commodities futures, mutual funds, life and general insurance products and off-shore investment.

The company already operates in Asia, Europe and Africa and plans to expand its operations in over 15 countries by next year.

"We aim to generate 50 per cent of our revenues from overseas markets by 2012 and capture a bigger share of the record US$195 billion invested in India last year by overseas funds," Bandyopadhyay said.

Infinity Financial Solutions director Ben Bennett, meanwhile, said the new venture with Reliance Money will help the company augment its services portfolio and provide the large NRI population in Malaysia with a platform to transact in Indian financial instruments.

"This partnership would also help us utilise their (Reliance Money) expertise by providing enhanced investment tools to a large section of population who have not been able to use these services earlier," he said.

Reliance Money is part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. At present, it serves some three million customers and has a network of over 10,000 outlets and 20,000 touch points in more than 5,000 locations.