DSE urges members to verify clients urgently

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) has suggested its members to verify Know Your Customer (KYC) forms of their old clients on an urgent basis to avoid forgery by rogue investors, officials said. The DSE also made some other suggestions, in a circular issued Sunday, including opening of new BO (beneficiary owner) accounts in presence of clients and after verifying their KYC. A DSE official said the circular came after some rogue quarters embezzled a substantial amount of money from different brokerage houses by tampering the cheques issued by them. "The vested quarters took away millions of taka from different brokerage houses through altering the amount of money, names and addresses mentioned by the brokerage houses in cheques," the official told the FE. "They tampered the cheques by erasing the figures and names printed with computers," an official of a brokerage house told the FE. "These quarters also open fake BO accounts to buy shares through forging cheques before record dates. But such account-holders cannot be identified, if their submitted cheques are dishonoured," he said. However, the officials of brokerage houses are unwilling to speak about the amount of money they have lost due to the acts of forgery. According to sources, the houses that became victims of such forgery include Rapid Securities, Royal Capital, Al-Haj Securities and Imtiyaz Securities. In such circumstances, the DSE issued the circular to their members for being more cautious regarding cheque tampering. The DSE members are requested to write up the amount of taka on cheques in letters using gel pen. They are also advised to mention "not over . Tk" on cheques so that nobody can increase the amount of money, mentioned by the brokerage houses. The DSE authority also suggested their members not to write cheques with electronic typewriters. The DSE circular also said the banks should honour cheques following the information, which will be sent to them, mentioning name of addressees, cheque numbers and amount of money.