Invest in stocks instead of savings certificates: BB governor

Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder has said trading of government treasury bonds will begin on the stock exchanges next week.

“We’ve already framed a rule to sell 50 per cent of the banks’ bonds in the secondary market,” he said at the 6th ‘World Investor Week 2022’ in Dhaka on Monday.

The mock trading of the treasury bonds continued on the Dhaka Stock Exchanges and Chittagong Stock Exchanges. On October 14, 2021, the DSE conducted the first mock trading of treasury bonds after 16 years using its trading system.

The governor said that the bond market is yet to develop in the country.

“In our neighbouring countries like India, Thailand, and Malaysia, entrepreneurs raise funds from the capital market and take loans from the banks for other needs. The opposite is happening in our country. Everyone is taking loans from the banks, leading to an increase in the number of defaulters. I think if we can develop the bond market, everyone will go to the bond market,” he said.

“We want people to invest in the capital markets instead of investing in savings certificates,” said Talukder.

“Another major problem in the development of the stock market was the high interest in savings certificates. That’s why a large part of the investment went into savings certificates. To avoid this problem, we’ve lowered the interest on the savings certificates,” he said.

Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) Chairman Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam, Secretary of the Financial Institutions Department of the Ministry of Finance Sheikh Mohammad Salim Ullah also spoke at the event, among others.