Al Amin :
More than five lakh foreign and local Beneficiary Owners (BO) account holders had left the country’s capital market in a year, according to a data of the Central Depository of Bangladesh (CDBL).
Market analysts think that such a large number of BO accounts holders have left the markets due to the wrong policies of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).
The regulatory body of the stock markets, however, said that the BO accounts are mainly suspended due to non-payment of annual renewal fees.
The CDBL data showed that the BO accounts were reduced to 20,14,651 as of July 14, which was 25,36,431 on June 29, 2021.
Among the BO accounts, male investors’ accounts retired to 14,98,309 from 18,69,449 and female investors’ accounts walked to 5,00,194 from 6,52,75 during the mentioned time.
On the other hand, foreign investors moved to 73,099 from 1,40,450 in the aforesaid time, according to the CDBL data.
Market analysts said the BSEC took some unwise decisions, which were not friendly for the investors.
Of the policies, setting the minimum investment in the secondary market for IPO applications and closing cash transactions between customers and brokerage houses are the main reasons of investors for leaving the capital market, they said.
They further said that closing more than five lakh BO accounts in a year is not a good sign as it will create obstacles in the development of the capital market.
As much as investors will participate in the market, the market will expand further. Similarly, the market will shrink and speed of transactions will slow down if investor’s participation decreases. Thus the way, the instability is creating in the market, they added.
Following this, the regulatory body should adopt policies that will increase investors’ participation in the market, they said.
Previously, there was no obligation to invest in the secondary market in case of IPO application for the stock market. But the BSEC imposed an obligation of investing at least Tk 20,000 in case of IPO application in 2021 and the amount increased to Tk 50,000 recently.
On the other hand, previously investors could make cash transactions up to Tk 5 lakh through the brokerage house, but the BSEC stopped the cash transactions, despite demand for increasing the amount to Tk10 lakh by the DSE Brokers Association of Bangladesh (DBA).
As a result, investors cannot do any cash transactions through brokerage houses.
These are the main reasons for decreasing the investors, the experts said.
Market analyst Prof Abu Ahmed told The New Nation, “The BO accounts are decreasing in the capital market due to the wrong policies set by the BSEC as the decisions were not investor friendly. The unfriendly policies are hindering the development of the market.”
BSEC Executive Director and Spokesperson Mohammad Rezaul Karim said some BO accounts have been closed due to non-payment of annual renewal fees.
