REFINANCING SCHEME FOR STOCKSA
5-member body formed to prepare guideline
The Bank and Financial Institution division of the finance ministry on Sunday formed a five-member committee to prepare a guideline for using the government fund to implement the refinancing scheme for the investors affected during the capital market crash in 2010-2011.
The committee has been directed to submit the guideline within seven days, said Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission executive director Saifur Rahman.
The five-member committee headed by BSEC commissioner Arif Khan also has representatives from the finance division and capital market wing of the finance ministry, the Bangladesh Bank and the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh.
Following prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s direction on Wednesday to release the fund for the stock market, the BB and the finance ministry on Thursday asked the ICB to collect the first phase of Tk 900 crore to implement the refinancing scheme.
ICB managing director Fayakuzzaman, however, on Thursday told New Age that before taking the fund how it would be used needed to be settled first.
BSEC sources said that they were in a hurry to give the fund to the merchant banks and brokerage houses within July to sustain investors’ confidence in the capital market as well as in the government.
Earlier in March 2012, the government announced the compensation package that also included waiver of interest on margin loans for the investors who suffered losses during the market crash.
In April this year, near about one year after the announcement of the scheme, the BSEC proposed to the finance ministry to refinance Tk 1,266 crore to this end.
The finance ministry in May approved the BSEC proposal and asked the BB to find out ways how it could be done. The BB the same month proposed to form a fund worth Tk 900 crore in this regard.
A BSEC report on the refinancing scheme that was sent to the finance ministry said that only five merchant banks and brokerage houses, out of a total of 308, waived only Tk 16.78 crore in interest and rescheduled loans of Tk 274.58 crore in the last one year. Only 7,413 investors out of a total of 9.53 lakh got the compensation, it added.
-With New Age input
