Bangladesh Bank has announced changes to the investment policy for foreigners in Bangladesh. Under the new rules, any investment of more than 10 lakh taka by a non-resident or foreign citizen or institution must be made through banking channels. In addition, the necessary information must be submitted to Bangladesh Bank within 14 days of the share issue of a domestic company. There, the shareholder’s name and address, number of shares, date of issue, nominal value per share, share premium, reporting ID used online, total value of issued shares, amount of investment in foreign currency, date of bringing the investment to the country, name of the investor’s country must be mentioned in the return.
In addition, the appropriate account number for transactions through SWIFT, email as a medium of short message, signature, etc. must be mentioned.
The instructions were issued in a notification issued by Bangladesh Bank on Monday (January 27).
The instructions say that foreign investment must be confirmed before the share issue. Shareholders and the source and country of investment must be mentioned. Bangladesh Bank will scrutinize the report sent by the country’s authorized dealer (AD) bank and issue instructions within 14 days.
It is known that foreign investors invest in two types of portfolios or portfolios in Bangladesh. One of them is in shares of various companies listed on the stock market, which are known as equity securities. The other is in debt securities. Equity securities refer to those securities that pay dividends to investors at the end of the year. Listed dividend-paying companies and mutual funds are better known as equity securities. And debt securities refer to those securities that pay interest at a fixed rate against the investment. Such securities include various types of bills and bonds.
According to Bangladesh Bank data, the total amount of foreign investment in equity in the last fiscal year was $820 million, which is $390 million or 32 percent less than the previous fiscal year. Of this $820 million, $800 million was investment from 10 countries.
