Masrur Reaz appointed BSEC chairman

Prominent economist and public policy expert M Masrur Reaz has been appointed as the chairman of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC). 

The Financial Institutions Division issued a circular, signed by Deputy Secretary Farida Yasmin, in this regard today (13 August).

Masrur's will serve as the BSEC chairman for the next four years, according to the circular.

His appointment as the chief of the stocks regulator comes two days after Shibli Rubayat-Ul Islam, an active member of the pro-Awami League Blue Panel at the University of Dhaka, ended his premature tenure as the BSEC chairman just five days after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government.

Shibli, who joined the commission in May 2020, faces a slew of allegations, including resorting to autocratic practices, facilitating market manipulators, and approving companies with poor fundamentals to raise funds from general investors.

The banking and insurance professor, who was reappointed on 28 April this year for a second four-year term, resigned on Saturday night citing personal reasons, just four months after his reappointment.

Masrur, who has replaced him, is the founder and Chairman of Policy Exchange of Bangladesh, a private-sector think-tank focusing on applied public policy and market solutions for economic growth.

He previously worked as a senior economist in the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation (FCI) Global Practice of the World Bank Group (WBG) for ten years during 2010-2020, according to the International Growth Centre (IGC), where he is a policy adviser.

As part of WBG work, he was based in WBG's Singapore hub office in 2019-2020 and led competitiveness initiatives in the East Asia and Pacific, and South Asia regions, reads the IGC website.

He also served as the programme manager/head of the Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund (BICF), a flagship initiative of the World Bank Group that help strengthen the economic competitiveness of Bangladesh.

Masrur led WBG's support to the Government of India on reform efforts related to Ease of Doing Business over the period 2015-2017. He led the World Bank Group's investment climate programme in Nepal in 2013-2014 and led a strategy team in 2013 to develop a Trade & Competitiveness strategy in Sri Lanka.

Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Masrur worked as an Adviser in the Economic Growth team of the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) where he led programmes on financial infrastructure, tax reform, privatisation, and business enabling environment.

Masrur earlier worked in academia as an assistant professor of finance, and in the private sector as an analyst. He has published several research publications in international and regional journals and authored a number of knowledge pieces within the World Bank Group.

Masrur is a commonwealth scholar and holds a PhD in Development Economics from the University of Manchester, UK, and an MBA from the University of New Orleans, USA.