Roundtable discussion on bond market held in city
The bond market has played a limited role in the economy, accounting for only 12 percent of the country’s GDP
There are huge opportunities for making money for bond market participants in Bangladesh, said experts in a roundtable discussion in the capital on Saturday.
Investment banking company City Bank Capital Resource Ltd and Public Relation Consultant Agency DobliuP Ltd jointly organised the roundtable on "Development of Bond Market in Bangladesh".
The speakers said although there are various types of bond products in Bangladesh, the bond market has played a limited role in the economy, accounting for only 12 percent of the country's GDP, which is a shallow market compared to neighbouring SAARC countries.
In Bangladesh, the two major sources of financing are the banks and the capital market. Equity financing from capital markets through issuing new shares is lenient whereas debt financing through issuing corporate bonds is almost non-existent. It has a debenture market with only a small number of well-known issuers.
Md Sirazul Islam, chairman of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority was present at the programme as chief guest. Ershad Hossain, chief executive officer of the City Bank Capital Resource Ltd presented the keynote speech.
Eminent corporate and government employees and representatives from multiple institutions like Bangladesh Secretariat, Bangladesh Bank, World Bank, Security Exchange Commission, Agrani Bank, Eastern Bank, IPDC Finance, Jamuna Bank, the Prime Bank Investment, daily English newspaper The Financial Express, Bangla daily Prothom Alo, etc. representatives were present as panellists.
Sajjadur Rahman, business editor of The Daily Star moderated the programme.
Study shows in recent years around 70 percent of the domestic savings are held in the form of bank deposits and the remaining 30 percent are in the stock and debt markets. The government still borrows through various national savings schemes at high-interest rates and banks collect deposits at quite high-interest rates in competition with the government securities. These rates deterred public borrowings by the corporate.