DSE seeks permission to open brokerage branches outside Dhaka

The association in a letter on Tuesday said the capital market would develop and grow by covering new market areas and the inclusion of potential investors outside the capital city

 
The DSE (Dhaka Stock Exchange) Brokerage Association (DBA) sought permission from the securities regulator to open brokerage house branches across the country to cater to more investors.

After the stock market crash in 2010, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) put a bar on opening brokerage house branches beyond the capital.

The association in a letter on Tuesday said the capital market would develop and grow by covering new market areas and the inclusion of potential investors outside the capital city. The move will be fruitful after the Chinese strategic partner consortium of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange teamed up with the DSE, the letter added.

It also said ‘the capital market has experienced a bearish trend most of the time due to money market regulatory constraints as we depend on institutions and money markets to supply fund flows into the capital market.’

‘To overcome such an unwanted situation, our network that includes branches, customer service points, and digital marketing points may be enhanced in the municipal areas of divisional headquarters [outside Dhaka] to enable us to create new investors and fund flows into the capital market,’ it said.

Mostaque Ahmed Sadek told the Dhaka Tribune, “The capital market has been expanding day by day. Therefore, we feel the necessity for our business expansion.”

He also said, “Brokerage houses, especially bank subsidiaries want to open branches outside the capital city to increase their clients.”

Sadek also said that opening new branches will promote the capital market and educate the people who have lack of knowledge on capital market investment.

Shahjalal Islami Bank Securities chief executive officer Anwarul Haque told Dhaka Tribune, “We want to open new branches outside Dhaka city to expand our business.”

‘If the commission permits us to open branches, it will be an opportunity for us to bring new investors to the capital market,’ he said.

As many as 154 applications seeking branch opening permissions have been pending for long with the BSEC. Of the total, 137 applications belong to DSE members and the remaining 17 come from the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) brokerages, sources said.

 “We believe the BSEC will have to emphasize on increasing the branches of good securities to deliver better services to investors,” said chief executive officer of BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage Limited, Sherief M A Rahman.

A number of brokerage houses said the BSEC provision limited their operations and their businesses became solely capital city based.

According to a BSEC directive on October 20, 2009, “A stock broker may open a maximum of 15 branch offices.  Any office connected to the main office through LAN facility within one kilometer of the broker’s main office shall be deemed as extension of the main office.”
Source: https://www.dhakatribune.com

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