Bangladesh stock market regulator moves to coordinate with financial market watchdog

Two key regulatory institutions overseeing Bangladesh’s financial services industry and the capital market will work together to remove barriers borne out of lack of coordination, new head of securities market watchdog has announced.

One official from Bangladesh Bank and another from Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission will sit initially once a month and coordinate between the two institutions, Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam told bdnews24.com after a meeting on Monday. They will sit once every two months later.

Shibli sat with the central bank following calls from analysts who pointed out a disconnect between the regulators as one of the reasons behind the bad condition of the stock market.

One of the objectives of the latest effort is to help the banks establish a Tk 2 billion fund each for investment in stocks.

The government allowed the banks to raise the funds with their own money beyond the limits on capital market investment as part of long-term plans to revive the sinking market.

The banks can also take the money through treasury bill or treasury bond repo from the central bank if they fail to provide enough money of their own for the funds.

“Besides this, Bangladesh Bank informed us about some legal complexities. The two officials will also work on the issue,” Shibli, the chairman of the stock market regulator, said.

He discussed the call for relaxing curbs on banks’ disbursing cash dividend for the year 2019 until Sept 30 to boost the fund flow in the banking system during the coronavirus outbreak.

Shibli asked the central bank to take into account interests of the small investors as well.