BSEC faces hurdles to select independent director for DSE

Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has declared two new individuals for the post of independent director of the premier bourse DSE on Thursday replacing the candidates who had been selected a day before.
This is the third time the country's stock market watchdog changed their proposed set of independent directors for the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).
On Thursday, BSEC declared Mominul Islam, former managing director of non-banking financial institution IPDC Finance, and Shahnaz Sultana, who is chief consultant and CEO of FINSAlliance, as independent directors.
Previously on Wednesday, they declared AF Nesaruddin, partner of Hoda Vasi Chowdhury & Co, and Syeda Zakeerin Bakht Nasir, chief consultant and CEO of ZN Consultants for the same post.
The BSEC changed its decision regarding independent directors in less than 20 hours, saying that candidates were unable to join the post.
BSEC spokesperson and director Farhana Faruqui told The FE that AF Nesaruddin and Syeda Zakeerin Bakht Nasir did not let them know why they were unable to join. Both of them were unreachable over the phone.
Two individuals selected as independent directors for the first time on September 1 expressed their inability to join. Moreover, the five other independent directors have not yet joined their posts after the selection.
Currently, the DSE has no independent directors after BSEC let go the seven former independent directors who served under the previous Awami League regime.
Generally, DSE proposes 14 names out of which BSEC selects seven. However, DSE was unable to propose an eligible candidates through a committee this time, as there were a leadership vacuum.
DSE proposed some names but BSEC was reluctant to select from those.
The DSE Brokers Association (DBA) has already requested the securities regulator to reconsider the recent appointment of independent directors to the board of the Dhaka bourse, raising concerns.

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