Banker Rashed Maqsood to head SEC for four years

The banker will head the stock market regulators for four years

After three days of speculations about who would lead Bangladesh’s Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, banker Khondoker Rashed Maqsood has been appointed as chairman of the regulatory body of the capital market.

The interim government initially selected Masrur Reaz, who worked on economic research, for this position, but after a change of mind, he declined to take the role.

Subsequently, the interim government chose former managing director of privately-owned Standard Bank Maqsood for the job.

The experienced banker, who has worked with domestic and foreign banks like Citibank NA, has been appointed for a four-year term.

His main challenge is expected to be restoring confidence in the stock market, which has been battered by meltdowns and manipulations.

On Sunday afternoon, the Financial Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance issued a notification appointing him.

He will replace Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam as the 10th chairman of the SEC. The previous chairman resigned on Aug 10 after a civil uprising brought down the Sheikh Hasina government.

Throughout his 28-year career as a fully fledged banker, Maqsood was most recently the managing director of Standard Bank.

Before joining Standard Bank, he was the managing director and country officer of Citibank Bangladesh for seven years and also worked at.

Before his stint at Standard Bank, he worked at NRBC Bank Limited and served as managing director and country officer of Citibank NA Bangladesh for the preceding seven years.

He also worked in the Jakarta office of Citibank NA Indonesia and was an advisor to the board of directors of MIDAS Finance Limited Bangladesh.

Maqsood, who served as the general secretary of the Association of Bankers Bangladesh, or ABB, studied at St Joseph High School and Notre Dame College in Dhaka.

He completed his BCom from the University of Dhaka and later earned an MBA in Finance from the Institute of Business Administration at the same university. He started his career in 1992 as a management trainee at American Express Bank.

Meanwhile, in another notification, the previous appointment of Masrur as the SEC chairman was cancelled.

The Ministry of Finance appointed Masrur, chairman of the research organisation Policy Exchange, on Aug 13.

Although some questions were initially raised about his appointment, they were resolved by the government. However, on Saturday, he formally informed the government that he did not wish to join SEC.

Despite expressing his 'inability' to take on this responsibility, he indicated his willingness to work on a larger scale if needed by the government.