& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

SEC scraps licences of two merchant banks

Sarwar A Chowdhury
The slock market regulator yesterday scrapped the licences of two merchant banks, aiming to cart off "inactive elements", officials said.
The two banks are Pangaea Partners (BD) Ltd and Prime Securities and Financial Services Ltd.
The banks failed to comply with the merchant banking licence requirements. said Farhad Ahmed, executive director of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
j°The two merchant banks had been granted more than two months to become active, but failed to do so,j± he said. i°We don't want any merchant banking licence holder to remain inac-tive.j±
The firms were awarded merchant banking licences in the category of issue managers in January 1998.
A merchant bank holding an issue
manager licence has to arrange at least one public issue in a year and submit the necessary* documents to die SEC.
Following the latest cancellations of merchant banking licences, the num ber of merchant banks now stands at 27, according to die SEC.
Of the existing 27 merchant banks, 24 have full-fledged merchant banking licences, two have only issue management licences and one has the portfolio management licence.
Responsibilities of a full-fledged merchant bank include underwriting, issue management and portfolio management in the capital market.
In line with the licensing conditions, a merchant bank has to form at least five portfolios in a calendar year in addition to its own portfolio and be an underwriter for at least two public issues or manage at least one public issue.
However, the performance of a
majority of the merchant banks has not been satisfactory. Only about 10 are active in banking transactions, according to market insiders.
The SEC is now thinking of awarding merchant banking licences to new firms. "We are planning to issue a few new licences soon," Ahmed said.
Presently, about ten merchant bank ing licence applications from commercial banks and non-banking financial institutions are pending with the SEC.
Recently, Janata Bank received a full-fledged merchant banking licence from the market watchdog.
Earlier in October last year, the SEC cancelled two merchant banking licences - First Securities Services Ltd and Raspit Securities and Management Limited. In 2006, the SEC also scrapped a merchant banking licence of Equity Valuation Research and Distribution Ltd.
sarwar@thedailystar.net