Shibli Commission sucked huge money from stock market

Staff Correspondent: The newly resigned chairman of the regulatory body Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) Prof. Shibli Rubaiyat-ul-Islam was secretly organizing the raids to keep track of the personal activities of stock market investors or BO account holders.
For this purpose, an attempt was made to reach a compromise agreement with the National Telecommunication Monitoring Center (NTMC) from the then Commission. A perusal of the draft outline shows that if the plan is implemented, NTMC officials will have the power to record online activities and voice calls of investors.
It is known that the Shibli Commission chose this path to identify those involved in destabilizing the market through manipulation and to bring people who spread insider trading and rumors under the law. The draft of a possible MoU was also sent for consideration to the Financial Institutions Department of the Ministry of Finance for the implementation of this initiative during the last period of the ousted Awami League government.
According to Central Depository Bangladesh Limited (CDBL), the number of beneficiary accounts or BO accounts in operation in the country till Tuesday was 16 lakh 73 lakh 552. This is the number of institutional and individual investors in the country in general.
According to the concerned investors, this initiative of Shibli Commission is very terrible news for these investors of the stock market. Because, NTMC as an intelligence agency has the power to monitor, collect and record information and communication data of organizations and individuals. As a result, it is scary to people.
Syed Almas Kabir, former president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) told, if there is a control issue, there are many technological alternatives.
But morally it cannot be supported in any way.
To find out why this controversial initiative was attempted, the former chairman of BSEC, Professor Shibli Rubaiyat-ul-Islam, was repeatedly contacted on his mobile phone. After sending a message on WhatsApp, he did not receive any response.
When the former Executive Director and Spokesperson of BSEC Mohammad Rezaul Karim was contacted later, he said, ‘I am no longer in charge of the spokesperson. The new commission will decide on the future of the initiative. It is better not to comment.
Meanwhile, in the letter given to the Secretary of the Financial Institutions Department, the position of the commission has been highlighted and it is said that manipulation, insider trading and spreading of rumors are damaging the market in various ways. It is essential to strengthen information services and cyber security to stop such fraudulent activities and identify the concerned persons and ultimate beneficiaries. A memorandum of understanding with NTMC will assist BSEC in its monitoring, inspection and investigation procedures as per the Securities Act.
A perusal of the draft document shows that within 7 days of the signing of the MoU, the authorized person of NTMC will be able to collect API links and various parameters from BSEC for verification of various data.
In this case, the reasoning of the law is also mentioned, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission Act, 1993 can enter into securities-related cooperation and information exchange agreements with domestic and foreign authorities or organizations with the prior approval of the government.
When contacted to know what the Financial Institutions Department thinks about the matter, none of the officials agreed to give an official statement on the matter. However, a source in-charge of the department, who did not wish to be named, said the BSEC has no involvement with state security or public order. On the other hand, NTMC is an institution run in the interest of state security or public order. In that context there is no chance of approval of the proposed MoU by the government.
Professor BM Mainul Hossain of Dhaka University’s Institute of Information Technology said that although this practice is still in place in many countries; However, this initiative of the capital market cannot be morally supported.
Meanwhile, the new commission of BSEC does not support the initiative to enter into this MoU with NTMC. When asked about this, a responsible source of the commission, on the condition of anonymity, told that they do not want to go into any initiative that people dislike because it will be criticized.
Mizan-ur-Rashid Chowdhury, President of Punjibazar Investors Oikya Parishad, said that no action should be taken against the interests of investors.