The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission will make its decision today regarding the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh-run eight close-ended mutual funds’ tenure extension proposals, BSEC senior officials told New Age. The ICB has recently submitted applications to the capital market regulator to extend its eight mutual funds’ tenure by 10 years. ‘The BSEC will make its decision over the ICB-run eight mutual funds’ tenure extension proposals on Wednesday,’ the BSEC official said.
‘The commission is likely to reject the proposals as mutual fund rules did not allow a close-ended mutual fund to run for more than 10 years,’ he said.
The ICB-run eight mutual funds are: First ICB Mutual Fund, Second ICB Mutual Fund, Third ICB Mutual Fund, Forth ICB Mutual Fund, Fifth ICB Mutual Fund, Sixth ICB Mutual Fund, Seventh ICB Mutual Fund and Eighth ICB Mutual Fund.
The BSEC in September rejected proposals of AIMS of Bangladesh Limited to extend tenure of its two mutual funds.
The AIMS of Bangladesh, the asset manager of Grameen One: First Scheme of Grameen Mutual Fund One and AIMS First Guaranteed Mutual Fund, made the proposals after getting approval from the unitholders.
Earlier in 2009, the BSEC had asked the mutual funds, without any maturity period and passed 10 years after listing, to pull them out from the market by December 2011.
Since the directive, the BSEC in three times extended tenure of the ICB-run close-ended mutual funds by three years following instructions from the finance ministry.
Last time in 2013, the BSEC extending the tenure of ICB-run eight mutual funds by one year, had asked the ICB to complete all the relevant procedure of conversion within December 31, 2014.
Another BSEC official also said that a court order was in place that had asked all the regulators to ensure equal treatment for public and private entities which was another barrier for the commission to accept the ICB’s plea for tenure extension for its mutual funds.
The commission last year also allowed the ICB to convert its eight close-ended mutual funds into open-ended.
In 2013, the ICB also filed an application with the BSEC to merge its nine close-ended mutual funds with the Bangladesh Fund, but the commission rejected the plea as no rules permit such merger.
-With New Age input
