HSBC Bermuda has made just over $4 million in net sales for its new World Selection investment product over the past three weeks alone.

Simona Paravani, global investment strategist for HSBC Global Asset Management (UK) Ltd., visited the Island this week to talk to clients about the product at an event held at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess hotel yesterday.

Ms Paravini, who was joined by Gregory Fletcher, senior manager of wealth management at HSBC Bermuda, said her role was to help promote the new offering in Bermuda and provide investors with background on it from a worldwide perspective.

World Selection allows the bank's customers to access funds from around the world and manage their level of risk, with each investment carefully selected and monitored by experts globally and the provision of more consistent returns over time through a wide range of choices from different asset classes, including hedge funds, property, private equity and emerging market debt, and markets.

HSBC launched the product in the form of three funds in the UK in January 2009 and has since been made available to clients in several other countries, including the US, Canada and Hong Kong, with almost $3 billion of customer assets invested in World Selection to date.

"The portfolios and the concepts have been extremely well received," said Ms Paravini.

"We have close to $1.8 billion in the three original portfolios and sales in the UK have really persuaded us that there are significant benefits in taking the concept global and that is why we have launched new versions of World Selection to cater for the needs of our global client base.

"We have five portfolios which were distributed to different places throughout the world and although they were all local versions, the DNA and make up is truly common to all of them no matter where they are distributed."

Ms Paravini said it was important for the customer to have a portfolio specifically tailored to meet their needs and to match their risk profile.

"Life is hard enough as it is," she said. "So people don't want the roller-coaster ride that can go with investing and that is why we are focused on portfolios that can deliver a smooth ride through investments that take them to where they want to be."

Mr. Fletcher said take up of the new product had been strong considering the size of the market on the Island.

"For me, this is the clearest representation or example of us truly leveraging the global capabilities in a local format," he said.

"All of the responses have been good so far and certainly the exposure and interest from our clients when you speak to them has piqued."

HSBC now plans to roll out World Selection to its markets in Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and the Americans during 2010.