The Bahrain Monetary Agency, the central bank for the country, has seen a recent surge in the number of mutual funds registering with the agency.
The combined assets under management by BMA-authorized mutual funds have grown 55% to $8.3 billion in this past year alone, while growth over the past four years has leapt ahead by more than 180%.
According to the BMA the surge has been driven, in part, by locally-based Islamic funds.
“Bahrain is fast becoming a prominent destination in the region for collective investment schemes, particularly locally-incorporated investment funds,” says Mohammed Ayman Al Tajer, BMA director for non-bank financial institutions supervision.