Number of BO accounts on rise

The number of investors' BO (beneficiary owner's) accounts has crossed the 3.0 million-mark as fresh investors are opening accounts mainly to apply for IPO (initial public offering) shares, insiders said.
According to Central Depository Bangladesh Limited (CDBL), the number of active BO accounts stood at above 3.0 million (30,05,501) on Tuesday.
"The number of BO accounts has crossed 3.0 million-mark as many fresh investors are opening account to apply for IPO shares. The accounts, which earlier were closed due to non-payment of annual fee, also started to be re-opened," said a senior executive of a brokerage firm involved with the job of account opening.
The securities regulator recently brought changes in the IPO application process allowing investors to apply for the IPO shares through the BO accounts opened with different brokerage firms.
The new IPO application process was applied for the issue of Hamid Fabrics although majority number of investors applied for the shares of that company through bank accounts.
"Satisfactory number of applications was not submitted through BO accounts for the IPO of Hamid Fabrics as investors are yet to be fully aware of the system," said an official of another brokerage firm.
According to data of the CDBL, the number of BO accounts was around 2.79 million at the end of December, 2013.
Later, the number of accounts stood at 2.85 million on January 30 last as more than 61 thousand accounts were added with previous ones following the continuous rally in secondary market and good returns from primary market.
The number of BO accounts, however, dropped to below 2.5 million in June last due to non-payment of annual fee.

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