M Fazlur Rahman

After remaining inactive for 12 years, merchant bankers yesterday regrouped and pledged to turn the stock market into a major source of finance for industrialisation.
They said they would work together to bring more new issues to the capital market to meet huge demand from investors.
The merchant bankers made the promises after reformatting their association through their first-ever election since 1997, when Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association (BMBA) was launched. It has now 26 members.
An 11-member executive committee under the leadership of M Fazlur Rahman, head of the investment banking division of AB Bank, was put in place yesterday.
“As an institution, the merchant bankers or the association could not play its due role in developing the capital market,” said Rahman in his immediate reaction to the election.
“We want to help develop our stock market. We want industrialisation through capital market and to bring new issues to the market and create a balance between money and capital markets,” he said.
Rahman said the association under the new leadership would closely work with the regulatory body and investors to take the market to a new height.
Sheikh Mortuza Ahmed, head of the merchant banking division of Prime Bank, and who was elected as vice-president of BMBA, said the merchant bankers have no institutional representation in the market. The election will help merchant bankers work as an institution, he added.
“Now it's the beginning of a new era."
M Abdur Rouf, chief executive officer of ICB Capital Management Limited, has been elected secretary of BMBA, while Abdul Awal, managing director of Bangladesh Mutual Securities Limited, has been elected treasurer.
Arif Khan of IDLC Finance, Akter Hossain Sannamat of Prime Finance and Investment, Mohammad Ahsanullah of Trust Bank, A Malek Shamsher of Lankabangla Finance, Golam Sarwar Bhuiyan of GSP Finance Company, Tapan Krishna Poddar of Alliance Financial Services and Mohammad A Hafiz of AAA Consultants and Financial Advisers have been elected as members of the executive committee.