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Four more banks in for merchant banking

Sarwar A Chowdhury
Ihe Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday awarded merchant banking licences to four commercial banks.
The entry of the new four will increase the liquidity flow to the market manifold, market analysts said.
T he commercial banks that won full-fledged merchant banking licences are: state-owned Sonali and Agrani banks, and privately-run Southeast and Standard banks.
The SEC took the decision of awarding the licences at a meeting chaired by the commission's outgoing Chairman Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi.
"It's a very good step,” Syed Abu Naser Bukhtear Ahmed, managing director of Agrani Bank, told The Daily Star.
The state bank can contribute greatly to market development through its merchant baking division, Bukhtear said.
“We are ready to start our merchant banking by the end of this month,” he added.
Fhe new four took the total number of merchant banks to 33.
The responsibilities of a full-fledged merchant bank include underwriting, issue management, portfolio management and lending to stock investors.
Silmat Chisti, head of Citigroup Global Markets Bd Pvt Ltd, said: "The entry of the new merchant banks will help the market get additional liquidity."
"We welcome the initiative taken by the SEC to increase the participation of institutions in the Bangladesh capital market," she said.
Chisti said it would have a positive impact on the overall development of the capital market as an avenue of financing.
"We look forward to working together with all to address both the supply and the demand sides of the market and ensure market stability," she added.
Sonali Bank has Tk 900 crore in paid-up capital, Agrani Bank Tk 248 crore, Southeast BankTk 285 crore and Standard BankTk 220 crore.
The four banks have Tk 2,174 crore, Tk 324 crore, Tk 614 crore and I k 276 crore respectively in net asset value.
The commission also awarded an asset management licence to Prime Finance Asset Management Company, in which Prime Finance and Investment holds a 49 percent stake, Farhad Ahmed, executive director of SEC, told reporters.
The SEC also approved the trust deed of a Tk 100 crore mutual fund titled "Eastern Bank Mutual Fund".
Race Asset Management Company is the asset manager of the mutual fund, while Investment Corporation of Bangladesh is the trustee and custodian.
The commission also approved a "code of conduct” for credit rating agencies.
As per the code of conduct, each credit rating agency must have a rating committee' comprising five senior analysts, the SEC official said.
The credit rating agencies will also have to post the rating methodology on their websites so that the common people can get the methodological information.
sarwar@thedailystar.net