The year 2020 has been difficult, to say the least; the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc across economies, affecting any and every sector.
To that end, it is a pleasant surprise to see the boom in bonds for Bangladesh in 2020, with 23 companies raising a total of Tk9,017 crore from the capital market by issuing a bond. This was almost double the average of Tk5,000 crore since 2012, and there is hope that Bangladesh has turned a corner for the positive in this regard.
What is more, the secondary bond market -- which has remained inactive and has rendered the bond market as essentially non-functional -- appears to be going through changes, to allow for treasury bonds to be traded through the beneficiary owner’s (BO) accounts.
Indeed, as economies struggle to remain afloat, businesses require all the help they can get, and the increase in funds raised from bonds, and more activity in the bond market in general, is an encouraging sign that, rather than remaining complacent, we are looking to be pro-active and take action.
While capital markets can be volatile, as Shibli Rubayet ul Islam, chairman of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission remarked, remaining only equity-based limits its scope, and as such, encouraging more bonds and other forms of alternative investment funds, are a welcome move to diversify and enrich the capital market.
As Bangladesh looks to make headway in its development journey, establishing a robust capital market, one constituting of a more diverse portfolio of financial instruments, will be integral