BSEC's plan to eavesdrop on stakeholders' conversation awaits MoF nod

Arrangements were all set by the securities regulator under now-sacked Prof Shibli Rubayat to set a virtual booby trap on bourses in cahoots with a state telecommunications agency to gather information about online activities and voice-call records of stock-market investors, officials say.
The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) moved to sign a deal for such invasive deeds with the 'controversial' government agency styled National Telecommunications Monitoring Centre (NTMC), they have said.
Those who work with the NTMC gained the epithet 'notorious' in victim circles for their activities like invasion into privacy of people by voice-call record. It's sacked director-general, Brigadier-General Ziaul Ahsan, has been arrested and remanded for his controversial role during the fallen regime.
Sources said the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission last month in a letter to the Financial Institutions Division sought approval for signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the NTMC for the hi-tech systems to identify people who are involved in destabilising market through manipulation, insider trading, and spreading false propaganda.
In the letter the BSEC said strengthening information services and cyber-security is essential to identify such fraudulent activities and related persons and the ultimate beneficiaries.
"These will assist in monitoring, inspection, and investigation procedures as per securities laws," the letter reads.
Moreover, the regulator said, since stock market is a very sensitive sector, the BSEC and the NTMC have agreed to sign a MoU aiming to work together for protecting the bourses from all "unreal information" by identifying various groups and individual accounts which are being used to destroy the stability of the markets and deceiving investors by spreading misleading information through social media.
The section 5 (A) of the proposed MoU mentions that within 07 working days of signing of the deal, the NTMC will be able to collect API link and various parameters from the BSEC, including requisite information about the investors.
However, the NTMC would not be able to collect any securities-related data, the section 5 (A) stipulates.
Contacted Thursday, Amal Krishna Mandal, an additional secretary of the Financial Institutions Division, told the FE that the government was yet to take a decision as to whether or not to allow the BSEC to sign the MoU with the NTMC.
"The issue is complicated," he said, adding: "So the officials are scrutinising the matter."
Former BSEC chairman Prof Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam could not be reached over the telephone for a comment despite repeated attempts from which viewpoint the NTMC's assistance was found necessary.
Mr Islam was appointed chairman of the commission on 17 May 2020 for a period of four years. Having very good relations with government high-ups and influential quarters, he secured another four-year term on 17 May 2024.
However, he resigned from the post on August 10, few days after a student-mass uprising ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government. The interim government has frozen the bank accounts and beneficiary owner accounts of Mr Islam and his son Zuhair Sarar Islam last week, amid an ongoing anti-graft purge.
The Shibli Commission was widely criticised for taking faulty policies, facilitating stock-market manipulation through enacting rules favouring powerful quarters, nepotism, and promoting gambling, among others. Shibli Rubayet himself was involved in share trading in what is deemed conflict of interests with his role as chief of the country's securities market.
Mohammad Rezaul Karim, an executive director and spokesperson for the BSEC, told the FE that the commission has yet to receive "no objection" from the ministry over the signing of the MoU.
"The step was taken on commission's decision," he said when asked whether seeking help of the controversial government body was necessary or not.
"A new chairman has been appointed and now he will take decision whether to proceed with the matter," says Mr Karim.
The NTMC, as an intelligence agency, possesses the authority to monitor, collect, and record information and communications data of institutions and individuals. It also works on interception in electronic communications like phone calls, e-mails, and social-media accounts.
This is fearsome to people as their privacy is being violated through the activities of the NTMC. Moreover, the data and info collected by the NTMC in its National Intelligent Platform (NIP) have been breached on several occasions, and allegedly sold by individuals of some government agencies who have the access.
After Brigadier-General Ziaul Ahsan took charge of the NTMC in 2017, he increased its capability in different areas, especially communication interception, through procuring modern equipment.
Stock investors fear catastrophic impacts on the bourses if the NTMC begins recording voices and monitoring other kinds of electronic communications of the investors and other stakeholders following a deal with the BSEC.
On August 18, the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers' Association called for abolition of the NTMC on allegation that the agency has been involved in hacking into mobile phones and illegally leaking private conversations of citizens.
"The activities of the NTMC are unconstitutional," said Mohiuddin Ahmed, president of the association.
He mentioned the Article 43(b) of the Constitution guarantees the right to privacy in all forms of correspondence and communication. He alleged that the NTMC has primarily focused on intercepting phone conversations and deploying various apps to spy on and monitor citizens' communications over the internet.
Mr Ahmed has claimed that the agency has harassed numerous upstanding citizens by recording their phone conversations and even video calls.
Mr Ahmed said the NTMC purchased Pegasus spyware from Israel's intelligence agency, installed in phones without the users' knowledge and thus devices go under NTMC's control, enabling the agency to access all activities of the citizens.
These actions, the statement argued, are direct violation of citizens' rights to personal data protection and the Constitution, as well as being a breach of human rights.
Saiful Islam, president of the DSE Brokers Association of Bangladesh, says already there is surveillance software on both bourses, the BSEC also has access to the Central Depository Bangladesh Limited (CDBL) to check share movements, and also in the Central Counterparty Bangladesh Limited (CCBL) as a regulator.
"They have more than the required mechanism and systems already in play to identify the manipulators and check the market," he told the FE.
Mr Islam said taking additional assistance through using phone- interception equipment to monitor investors' activity will be detrimental to the sector. "No countries in the world do such surveillance," he says, adding: "We know how people were harassed by the NTMC."
He terms it a "barbaric move."
He forewarns that the surveillance through NTMC will make foreign investors further shaky to make investment in Bangladesh.
Mazeda Khatun, president, Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association, hopes that the move to make surveillance on market and investors by the NTMC would not be implemented in the changed political situation.
"Interception of voice call is interference on people's privacy," she told the FE.
Ms Khatun thinks if good governance can be established and sustainable policies can be enacted, no such monitoring will be needed.
"We need good governance and political commitment, not spying on people," she says, adding this would not be a right decision.
Mizan-ur-Rashid Chowdhury, president, Capital Market Investors Oikya Parishad, says violating privacy of people through voice-call record is against the constitutional rights and not good for any nation.
"No measures should be taken that go against the interests of the investors," he says, adding that the Shibli commission did not take any measure to book the real culprits rather facilitated them.
"We urge the government to arrest the big fishes who have destroyed the market since 1996 instead of going after small fry."
Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary, Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (SHUJAN), reminds that the right to privacy is citizens' fundamental right which cannot be violated anyway.
"The NTMC under Gen Zia was involved in harassing people," he says.
"How an organisation like BSEC can make collaboration with a body that was involved in criminal activities?" the civil-society campaigner questions.
He notes that "misinformation cannot be prevented by intercepting voice communication. It's a very dangerous move".

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