MFSS announce winner of the 2010 Victorian Innovation Funds Management Award

Here is a copy of a press release that should give Islamic finance followers in Melbourne a little flutter of pride:

'The Melbourne Centre for Financial Studies hosting the 2010 Melbourne Financial Services Symposium (MFSS) is pleased to announce that the 2010 Innovation in Funds Management Award has been awarded to Intrinsic Investment Management for their Intrinsic Crescent Ethical MDA.

This year three funds managers stood out; Intrinsic Investment Management, River Capital, and JM Financial. In commenting on the winner, MFSS Chair, John Gall, said that "All three finalists showed high levels of entrepreneurship and varying degrees of innovation in their business model. Above all they demonstrated a high degree of attention to risk management, corporate governance and engagement, a strong client service and communication culture and high alignment of interest with their clients".
“Intrinsic was chosen as the winner because of its CRESCENT ETHICAL MANAGED DISCRETIONEY ACCOUNT PRODUCT which provides MUSLIM people in Victoria and Australia with an opportunity to have their superannuation and non superannuation savings managed in a way consistent with their Islamic beliefs. In addition the product is considered appropriate for large overseas Muslim communities in say Malaysia, Indonesia and the Middle East to invest in Australian equities THUS meeting the strong push to make Australia and Victoria a major Financial Centre.

The product meets the need of a significant and fast growing portion of the Australian population, It is unique because there is not another investment product in Australia that looks after the investment needs of Muslim workers and investors, it is offered as a pooled fund or individually managed accounts.
Finally, the product required extensive revamping of internal investment decision making processes to meet the needs of Islamic investing. For example of the top 200 listed companies in Australia only around 72 qualify for Islamic investment. Despite this the product has managed to outperform the S & P /ASX 200 accumulation index.'

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a real Melbourne/Sydney rivalry over which city gets to be the Islamic finance capital of Australia? That way we might see some real developments real fast. Any thoughts, anyone?