BSEC chief promises full market digitisation, faster IPO processing

The newly appointed chairman of the securities regulator on Sunday announced a firm commitment to embrace digitisation across the capital market to ensure a transparent, technology-driven and sustainable trading environment.

While speaking at high-profile strategic sessions on his first day in office, BSEC chief Masud Khan said the automation of market infrastructure is a top priority to make the initial public offering (IPO) process faster, highly transparent and aligned with international standards.

"The commission is determined to build a modern, investor-friendly market by leveraging technology," Mr Khan said. "Our core objective will be to establish a simplified, transparent, and effective regulatory framework by minimizing unnecessary complexities."

The chief of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) outlined this comprehensive development roadmap during two separate sessions at its Agargaon headquarters - an internal strategy meeting with top BSEC officials at noon, followed by a courtesy meeting with the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) management in the afternoon.

Welcoming the new BSEC leadership, a DSE delegation led by Chairman Mominul Islam expressed readiness to support fundamental structural and technological reforms. He also advocated for a risk-based regulatory approach and emphasised the need for enhancing capacity in IPO evaluation and market surveillance.

Aligning with the BSEC's digitisation push, DSE Managing Director Nuzhat Anwar informed the meeting that the premier bourse was making necessary technical preparations to introduce scrip netting and a T+1 settlement system, working closely with both the BSEC and Bangladesh Bank.

Other DSE board directors present at the meeting called for a clear demarcation of authority between the BSEC and the DSE, stricter accountability in rights issues, a reassessment of the share categorisation system and a more robust mechanism to prevent brokerage irregularities.

The new commission officially took charge on June 4 for a four-year term. The overhauled leadership features a strong corporate and legal lineup, with Chairman Masud Khan, a veteran corporate leader and former chairman of Unilever Consumer Care; Tanvir Habib Rahman, CPA; Nahid Mahtab, a senior Supreme Court corporate lawyer; and Md Nafiz Al Tarik, CFA.