Photo: Collected
The DSE Brokers Association of Bangladesh (DBA) has welcomed the decision to reactivate 617 long-suspended BO (beneficiary owners) accounts and allow trading in them.
The association thanked the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) for the positive decision.
The DBA expressed its thanks in a press release sent to the media on Wednesday. The release said 617 BO accounts had remained suspended for a long time at the request of various government agencies and by decision of the commission. On 20 July, the DBA submitted a written application to the BSEC chairman to reactivate them. The application requested that steps be taken to reactivate the suspended accounts if there was no legal bar or prohibition from the relevant regulatory and government agencies.
DBA President Saiful Islam expressed gratitude to BSEC Chairman Masud Khan, the commissioners and the officials concerned for considering the application seriously and allowing trading by reactivating the accounts.
According to the DBA, the decision will allow a large volume of shares stuck for a long time to be traded again. This will increase liquidity and turnover in the capital market and boost investor participation; it will also help restore their confidence in the market.
The release further said stockbrokers and merchant banks that provided margin loans will also get the opportunity to overcome long-standing financial and business crises and return to normal operations. This will increase the financial capacity of the institutions concerned and the overall dynamism of the capital market.
The DBA reiterated its commitment to working in coordination and cooperation with the BSEC and all other stakeholders to ensure the development and stability of the country’s capital market.
Background
According to a report by The Financial Express on 22 May 2025, the BSEC had frozen a total of 617 BO accounts — 484 of them at the request of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit and the Anti-Corruption Commission or by court order, 109 through the commission’s own investigations, 18 belonging to brokerage houses and 6 to asset management companies.
By the numbers
According to CDBL data, there were 1.675 million BO accounts in the country at the end of FY2025-26, compared with 3.153 million on 1 July 2016 — The Daily Star reported this on 6 July.
Sources
Original report: BSS
Background sources: The Financial Express, 22 May 2025; The Daily Star, 6 July 2026
