Securities regulator slashes BO account fee to Tk 150 a year

The securities regulator has reduced the maintenance fee of BO (beneficiary owner's) accounts to Tk 150 from Tk 450 per year, considering the interest of general investors.

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) on Tuesday approved the new fee after receiving public opinion on an amendment to the Depository Rules, 2003.

The regulator cut the fee following requests from stakeholders, against the backdrop of a large number of BO accounts becoming inactive as investors refrained from renewing accounts to avoid the maintenance cost.

The revised fee will be effective from FY26 following a gazette notification on the amendment.

The BO account maintenance fee is realised in advance at the beginning of any fiscal year. But the revised fee for FY26 could not be collected yet as the amendment was not finalised before July this year.

For this reason, the securities regulator has extended the timeframe until October next to realise the fee for the ongoing fiscal year.

Central Depository Bangladesh Ltd. (CDBL), depository participants, and the securities regulator will each receive Tk 50 from the maintenance fee of a BO account.

However, the maintenance fees that became overdue until FY25 will be collected at the previous rate of Tk 450.

According to CDBL data, the number of operable BO accounts stood at more than 1.64 million as of Tuesday.

Of these accounts, 1.21 million have share balances, 373,113 have zero balance, while 64,770 have never been used.

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