Staff Reporter :
Prominent economist and public policy expert M Masrur Reaz has been appointed as the new chairman of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).
The Financial Institutions Division issued a circular regarding his appointment, signed by Deputy Secretary Farida Yasmin, on Tuesday.
According to the circular, Masrur will serve as the BSEC chairman for the next four years.
His appointment follows the resignation of Shibli Rubayat-Ul Islam, a prominent member of the pro-Awami League Blue Panel at the University of Dhaka, who ended his tenure as BSEC chairman just five days after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government.
Shibli, who assumed the role in May 2020, faced numerous allegations, including accusations of autocratic practices, facilitating market manipulators, and approving companies with weak fundamentals to raise funds from general investors.
Shibli was reappointed for a second four-year term on 28 April this year but resigned on Saturday night, citing personal reasons, just four months after his reappointment.
Masrur, who has now taken over the position, 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.
Before his new role, Masrur served as a senior economist in the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation (FCI) Global Practice of the World Bank Group (WBG) for a decade, from 2010 to 2020, as noted by the International Growth Centre (IGC), where he is a policy adviser.
As part of his work with the WBG, he was based in the organisation’s Singapore hub office in 2019-2020, leading competitiveness initiatives in the East Asia and Pacific, and South Asia regions, according to the IGC website.
Masrur also served as the programme manager and head of the Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund (BICF), a flagship initiative of the World Bank Group aimed at strengthening Bangladesh’s economic competitiveness.
In addition, Masrur led the WBG’s support to the Government of India on reform efforts related to Ease of Doing Business between 2015 and 2017. He also headed the World Bank Group’s investment climate programme in Nepal during 2013-2014 and led a strategy team in 2013 to develop a Trade and 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.