BSEC to inspect overall status of 3 merchant banks

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has formed a three-member committee to review the overall operations of three merchant banks in the stock market.

ICB Capital Management, Janata Capital and Investment, and IIDFC Capital Limited are the banks.

The commission recently formed the committee and issued letters to the related parties.

BSEC Additional Director Mohammad Shamsur Rahman, Assistant Director Md Motiur Rahman, and Md Amirul Islam are the members of the committee.

The inspection team will inspect and submit the report to the commission within 30 days.

According to the letter, the inspection team will review the number of margin accounts, the number of beneficiary owner (BO) accounts with negative equity, the actual amount of negative equity, and the provisions allocated for margin accounts.

The team will also identify any shortfalls in these provisions, detect unauthorised transactions in margin accounts (if any), investigate the reasons for the rising negative equity, and determine who is responsible.

Furthermore, the team will examine why merchant bankers have failed to maintain the required provisions against unrealised losses and assess their non-compliance with securities regulation.

The inspection will also focus on why merchant bankers have continuously failed to comply with the commission's instructions to make provisions against unrealised losses since 2016, despite multiple deadline extensions. Any other relevant issues related to this matter will also be reviewed.

The BSEC conducts inspection activities to identify any irregularities in the operations of various merchant banks. If any inconsistencies are found in the inspection report, the commission will take necessary actions accordingly. This is a routine task of the BSEC.