The Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) has sought permission from Bangladesh Bank to get access to its credit information bureau with a view to preventing loan defaulters from holding directorship in companies.

The RJSC placed the demand at a coordination meeting of the financial regulators at the central bank headquarters in Dhaka on April 25.

At the meeting, RJSC officials said many defaulters hold directorship illegally as the regulator was unable to verify the credit status of the directors of a company.

Besides, the RJSC has to provide licence within the shortest possible time for opening new companies which creates difficulties for it to cross-check the credit standard of a company director.

Loan defaulters are banned from holding directorship in any company as per Companies Act (Bangladesh) 1994.

In response to the RJSC's plea, Monsura Khatun, general manager of the central bank's CIB, said there was no scope to grant the RJSC access to the bureau due to legal limitations.

Only banks can access the CIB in accordance with Bank Company Act 1991, she said.

SM Moniruzzaman, a deputy governor of the central bank, suggested that the RJSC collect information from the BB through emails.

He urged the RJSC to appoint an official as a focal point to collect information from the central bank.

The central bank will look into how to share information with the RJSC about the directors on the working day it makes the correspondence, Moniruzzaman said.

The coordination meeting decided to arrange a bilateral meeting between the central bank and the RJSC on the exchange of data.

BB Governor Fazle Kabir presided over the meeting, which was also attended by representatives from the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority, Microcredit Regulatory Authority, and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

The regulators sit every six months at the BB headquarters to exchange views in order to keep the financial sector stable.