Ibrahim Khaled disappointed about government failure to reform SEC, demutualise bourses

Khondkar Ibrahim Khaled, a former deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, is disappointed with the 'absence of transparency' in reforming regulators Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after the share market debacle in recent years.

Khaled, who headed a committee to propose the reforms after the fall, also said the government failed to demutualise the capital market 'effectively', which was 'unfortunate'.

In his judgement, the investors' confidence in the market will not be regained without these two factors - 'proper' reformation of the SEC and demutualisation of the market.

"The SEC should have been reformed. The places where the chairman and the other members sit should have been more transparent," he told an international conference on Sunday.

"It will not work if they only keep it in words. It has to be credible to the people. It's unfortunate that didn't happen," he said.

According to him, reformation of the SEC is the first condition to restore the investors' trust.

The SEC was reformed following the recommendations by the Khaled committee in 2011. The government had said the other recommendations would be implemented gradually.

The stock exchanges were demutualised in 2014 by separating the owners from the management.

"The government could not do what demutualisation of the share market actually means. They have completed 60 percent of the job. The remaining 40 percent traders are still in the board," Khaled said.

The 60 percent members appointed by the government do not get into any trouble with the 40 percent private members, who finally 'take the big decisions' while the government ones 'only pass time', he added.