A giant Swiss bank-Pictet-is looking at the progress of Bangladesh's capital markets in a bid to make investment in a bigger way, officials said.
Some top officials of the bank last week sat with the securities regulator, premier bourse and the local custodians to discuss the issues regarding capital markets' infrastructure and regulatory framework.
The Pictet senior vice-president Daniel Faes and senior trader in emerging markets Francisco Pozza held meetings with the stakeholders of the capital market.
According to Wikipedia, the Pictet, founded in 1805 in Geneva, has the operations of private banking, wealth management, institutional asset management, asset services and investment funds and runs 25 branches around the world.
The officials of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) have said the Pictet has investments here made in 1990 and now they have become interested about bigger investment in the country's capital markets following some recent developments.
"In the meeting held with the DSE, the Pictet officials wanted to know about the business operation mode and settlement system," said the DSE President Ahasanul Islam Titu.
The DSE president said the type of view exchanges indicates the Pictet is thinking about bigger involvement in Bangladesh.
The Pictet senior vice-president Daniel Faes, however, did not respond to an e-mail sent to know about their interest and plans of making further investments in Bangladeshi stocks.
According to the DSE president, the giant investors of the West are now looking at the East as investment opportunities are more feasible here.
"The market should be separated from the retail market for the foreign portfolio investors. They should be facilitated by the IPO (initial public offering) market and block market scope," the DSE president said.
He said the market infrastructures should be developed more by upgrading the trading system and direct share transfer to the Central Depository Bangladesh Limited (CDBL) for attracting foreign investors.
When asked, Professor Helal Uddin Nizami, the commissioner of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), has also acknowledged the interest of the Pictet to the Bangladesh's capital markets.
"In a meeting held with the BSEC, the Pictet wanted to know about the regulatory framework and recent reforms brought in the securities rules," Mr. Nizami said.
He said during the meeting the Pictet officials were briefed on the rules and regulations of capital market, corporate governance guideline, settlement guarantee, national Clearing Corporation and other rules related to the capital market.
"I think they were pleased for the reforms brought by the BSEC," Nizami said.
The officials of a bank brokerage firm, which deals with foreign portfolio investors, have also confirmed that the Pictet officials exchanged views with them on the country's capital markets.
"The Pictet is very much calculative in making investments across the world. That's why their investment depends on favorable market indicators including the P/E ratio," said a senior official of the brokerage firm.
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