More SMS alerts for investors

Investors will get more SMS alerts in case of any changes in their beneficiary (BO) accounts.

At present, the Central Depository Bangladesh Ltd (CDBL) sends free SMS to all the BO account holders about any buy or sale of securities in their investment accounts.

From now, the only depository service provider of the country will send the same to investors' registered mobile phone numbers if any of the newly-decided eight kinds of updates take place in the BO account.

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), in its 710th commission meeting on Tuesday, approved such a plan, placed by the CDBL.

In addition to the existing ones, the CDBL will send free SMS alerts if a BO account is opened or closed if any link account with the BO account is opened, if the name or the mobile number or the bank account detail of an investor is changed, and if the margin status of the BO account is changed, said the regulator in a press release.

CDBL officials told The Business Standard that they are ready to start the new services any day as they do not require any technological upgradation to deliver the services.

To enjoy all the automated services seamlessly, the CDBL and the BSEC requested investors to update their cell phone numbers, email addresses and bank account details.

The CDBL, having started its journey in 2000, is helping widely-desired automation in Bangladesh's capital market in terms of bringing the electronic format of securities, safekeeping those in its secured database and updating the securities ownership database based on stock exchange, provided buy-sell information.

The CDBL is widely appreciated to help curb the crime of spreading fake share certificates on the street, which had a devastating impact on both individual and institutional investors and the market as a whole during the 1996 bull run.

In recent years, experts are stressing that the CDBL crack down on BO accounts which are opened with fake information or used as proxy accounts of market manipulators.

In response to that, the BSEC this year has instructed the CDBL to increase BO accounts' transparency.

One of the BSEC instructions for shutting down the accounts – which are opened based on different peoples' identity authentication like national identity number or cell phone number – may help make the market surveillance stronger and increase transparency, believe experts.