The DSE Brokers Association (DBA) of Bangladesh demanded a special task force to overhaul the country's moribund capital market.
The primary and secondary market does not have the capacity to attract people's savings and transform them into investments.
The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) has been operating for almost seven decades and the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) for more than three decades as a market watchdog.
However, the country's capital market is far from becoming a source of capital formation and a sector for employment generation.
"Our capital market has not yet developed as an industry, business sector, and a general sustainable income sector," said Saiful Islam, president of the DSE Brokers Association of Bangladesh (DBA), in a telephonic interview with The FE on Tuesday.
The DBA is a platform for trading right entitlement certificate (TREC) holders of the DSE. On Sunday, it submitted a letter to Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed, pressing home for a special task force for planning much-needed reforms.
"The current laws and regulations involving the capital market are not suitable for bringing new foreign investments," said Mr Islam.
He said he believes the interim government is committed to making Bangladesh a discrimination- and corruption-free prosperous country by ensuring good governance at all levels.
The DBA emphasized the need for reforms for regaining the faith of overseas and local investors.
"We want to transform this market so it can help build capital for the people. Young people are our assets; we want this capital market to create employment for them.
"Current structure [of the market] is unable to attain these objectives."
The institutional framework of the securities regulator had been completely destroyed by misrule during the Awami League-led government's 15-year rule to the benefit of a handful of people close to those who were in power.
The unprofessional and unethical activities during the tenures of the past two BSEC chairmen caused investors to lose confidence in the market completely. "We have urged the interim government to heal the wounds rendered by the listing of bad companies and stock price manipulation," said Mr Islam.
The DBA also demanded restructuring of the board of the DSE, Chittagong Stock Exchange, Central Depository Bangladesh and Central Counterparty Bangladesh as, it said, political appointees are still there in directorships.
"We demand that these institutions be restructured by removing the politically-appointed people and replacing them with qualified and experienced professionals," said the DBA chief.
Who will be the members of the task force?
The DBA said it wants honest and qualified persons as members of the task force, including from market intermediaries who will not bow to any political pressure.
"We do not need any foreign consultants. Our local expert will be able to forge a new plan within six months," he said, adding that the best strategy will be to select task force members from market intermediaries.
"Our capital market is very unstable currently. We want a more stable capital market where people's money will be secured. We want help from the current interim government to recover from the losses incurred in the last 15 years through restoration of good governance."
Recently, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) has formed a task force for banking sector reforms, with six experts from the financial sector as members. Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur will serve as the coordinator of the task force.
The expert committee will mainly assess the existing financial situation, bad assets and major risks to economic stability. It will also review financial index, assess actual conditions of the loans, actual price of assets and security deposit deficiency.
"We want a similar task force for sustainable development of the country's capital market," said Mr Islam, adding that they are ready to give all kinds of support to this government.
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