FE Report

A bill titled 'The Exchanges (Demutualisation) Bill, 2013' was placed in Parliament Sunday, proposing separation of management from ownerships of the country's stock exchanges for ensuring transparency in the activities of the exchanges.

Cultural Affairs Minister Abul Kalam Azad placed the Bill in the House, as Finance Minister AMA Muhith was not present.

The Bill was sent to the relevant parliamentary standing committee, which was asked to submit its report within 15 working days.

As per the Bill, any exchange failing to comply with its provisions will be fined not less than Tk 1.0 million. And even the registration of a stock exchange will be cancelled if it is proved that the concerned exchange or its director, member or chief executive intentionally does not comply with the provisions of Bill.

Demutualisation is the process through which any member-owned stock exchange becomes a shareholder-owned company, which could either be listed on a stock exchange or closely held by its shareholders.

Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) will submit their demutualisation schemes to the securities regulator within 90 days of passing the Demutualisation Bill by Parliament.

And the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) will approve the demutualisation scheme within next 60 says.

After the regulatory approval to the scheme, the revised board of a stock exchange will approve the agenda of issuing 35 per cent stakes to general investors in the first meeting.