"We have chosen Singapore as our offshore hub for our Islamic wealth management given the position of Singapore as a wealth management player not just in the region but also globally," John Chong, Maybank's Group CEO of Community Financial Services, said at the launch.

The launch comes at a time when Singapore has experiencing strong inflows of wealth drawn by the city-state's political stability, low taxes and policies favourable to setting up funds.

Maybank's Islamic banking arm, Maybank Islamic Bhd, is the world's fifth largest Islamic bank by assets at $67 billion.

Maybank said the launch will make it the first lender in Singapore to offer "end-to-end Islamic wealth solutions" and help it capture the growing demand for Shariah-compliant wealth product and services globally.

(Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui, Editing by Louise Heavens)