‘We want a capital market reform commission’

The interim government should establish a capital market reform commission to thoroughly investigate the irregularities, corruption, and crimes that occurred previously, according to Md Ashequr Rahman, managing director of Midway Securities.

In a recent interview with TBS, he said in addition to holding those responsible accountable, the commission should implement sustainable reforms to prevent the recurrence of past offences and to unlock the full potential of the capital market.

“Simply changing the top officials will not resolve the issue unless we examine the technical details of the irregularities, corruption, and crimes to hold culprits accountable at all levels. A strong, objective commission can achieve this,” he said during the interview.

Md Ashequr Rahman said no doubt, the people at the top bear the maximum responsibilities. “But they were never alone in the continuous wrongdoing, they must have had some associates at the regulatory offices who definitely had violated their job responsibilities and professional ethics,” he said.

For instance, he noted that the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), under the previous two chairmen, failed to protect investors’ interests in various ways. This included listing weak companies to benefit cartels at the public’s expense and forming harmful alliances with bad cartels in both the primary and secondary markets, he said.

Mentioning that the recent-most BSEC chairman and some of the commissioners had to leave offices after the political regime change, he said, “Let us not forget, some of their subordinated BSEC officials had contributed to the damage to the investors, intermediaries and the overall capital market.”

Next generation of regulatory officials should learn from their seniors’ examples of consequences of wrongdoings that in no circumstance job responsibilities and professional ethics should be compromised. Otherwise the qualitative change the country dreams for will remain far, Ashequr Rahman told TBS.

Unusual situations should not be a much embraced excuse for deviations from rules and good norms, he added.

The managing director of Midway Securities further said, “We have come through too many case to case basis of approvals, exemptions and their outcome was not good at all. Better we improvise our rules and processes in a bid to a stronger adherence for better predictability and reducing risks of misconducts, corruptions.”

Also, there had been extreme lethargy for years in market development tasks. So many tasks ahead to build a modern day capital market infrastructure and earn the trust of all, he said.

“The capital market commission I am demanding should prioritise these,” said Md Ashequr Rahman, the second generation stockbroker who came back from the US with experiences in investment banking and the stock brokerage industry there.