DSE eager to appoint Asheq as chief regulatory officer

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) is now desperate to appoint former banker M Asheq Rahman as its chief regulatory officer (CRO), after he was rejected as the bourse's managing director (MD) by the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).

The premier bourse has written to the BSEC on Thursday for securing approval to appoint the controversial candidate as CRO for three years.

Two of the DSE board members told The Business Standard on Saturday that some of the board members of the bourse had unduly influenced the appointment process of Asheq in an attempt to make him the MD.

"The same board members are again trying to do the same to make him the CRO of the bourse."

"Initially, the DSE human resources department rejected Asheq as he did not have the professional degrees and academic backgrounds required by the exchange's recruitment policy," they continued.

A controversial shareholder director of the bourse, who has a long track record of influencing the independent activities within the bourse, collaborated with an independent director and took upper hand on the management officials and inserted Asheq's name in the shortlist of three.

The two directors, also members of the DSE's nomination and remuneration committee (NRC), influenced the five-member board committee responsible for the recruitment and picked Asheq over more qualified candidates.

A member of the NRC told TBS, "It is a vulgar display of power and if the regulator checks the zoom meeting recordings, the untold ugly truth - that DSE is a one man show nowadays - will be revealed."

"He (the controversial shareholder director) verbally intimidated and insulted other board members not to go against him in appointing the CRO," said the NRC member who also faced the same situation in the board meeting.

"It was clear that the candidate was pre-selected and nothing from us worked to stop the influence," he added.  

Earlier this year, the BSEC rejected DSE's application to appoint Asheq Rahman as its MD, citing his lack of experience in the capital market as well as in the top management.

One of the BSEC senior officials previously told TBS, "The candidate also has some other shortcomings, including moral deviation at work."

"We have come to know that he was asked to resign from two of his previous workplaces - CitiBank NA and Standard Chartered Bangladesh - because of his certificate fraud and travel bill faking respectively," he added.

Why so desperate?

DSE officials said, MD and CRO are the two top vital posts at the bourse that can make big differences in terms of getting things done.

Any portion of board members can commit too many financial crimes at the capital market if it gets unfair support from these two posts.

The shareholder director, who is pursuing to set Asheq at any of the two posts, is so desperate also because the candidate is a friend of his son and perceived to be loyal to him, said another shareholder director.

The shareholder director's name resurfaced last year when the DSE board was allegedly about to raise an agenda stealthily in its meeting to directly list a hotel company even before the regulation supported that.

However, finally the finance ministry interfered and stopped the attempt. 

In this regard, TBS tried to contact DSE Chairman Md Eunusur Rhaman several times via phone calls and messages for a comment, but all remained unanswered.

BSEC Chairman Professor Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam said, the regulator would scrutinise the application and the supporting documents before saying yes or no to the CRO appointment proposal.