‘Financial reporting must ensure investor confidence’

Financial reporting, auditing and corporate governance must ensure transparency and integrity to build foreign investors’ confidence in Bangladesh, the prime minister’s special assistant for investment and capital market affairs said yesterday.

“When foreign investors review financial reports, they expect absolute integrity. If numbers fail to reflect the truth, investors lose money, and both the regulator and the nation take a severe reputational hit,” Tanvir Shahriar Ghani said.

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He made the remarks while speaking as the chief guest at an event marking World Investor Week at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) office in Dhaka.

“Global capital is extremely mobile and dynamic. It flows where things are transparent and straightforward,” he said, noting that Vietnam had attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign direct investment by ensuring compliance, following international accounting standards and strengthening institutional clarity.

He urged financial professionals to practise self-regulation and maintain professional integrity.

“Professional integrity is a self-imposed discipline. Just like reaching a cashless society, our ultimate goal must be becoming responsible citizens of the financial market,” Tanvir said.

Bangladesh already has the core professional institutions, including ICAB, the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB) and the Institute of Chartered Secretaries of Bangladesh (ICSB), he said.

“The primary challenge now is not just standard adoption, but rigorous implementation,” said the PM’s special assistant.

To position Bangladesh as a top-tier destination for global capital, he outlined four areas of focus.

The areas include improving the quality of financial reporting and auditing beyond surface-level compliance; upgrading institutional IT systems to demonstrate modern compliance capabilities to international stakeholders; replacing arbitrary file audits with structured and risk-based supervision; and ending siloed operations among Bangladesh Bank, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA).

Also speaking at the event, BSEC Chairman Masud Khan highlighted the role of auditors in verifying capital formation and paid-up capital before initial public offerings.

Emphasising the critical role of auditors in verifying capital formation and paid-up capital prior to initial public offerings (IPOs), he said streamlining the pre-IPO audit process could significantly reduce processing times.

“There is absolutely no reason why an IPO should take more than three months. Once the capital verification and audit process is completed properly, even three months feels like a long time,” Masud said.

On valuation and price discovery, he said the BSEC was introducing a Dutch option method combined with capped valuation discounts to protect general investors while keeping valuations attractive to issuers.

The BSEC chief also said many auditors were providing services for unreasonably low fees.

The commission supports establishing a proper fee structure based on factors such as total turnover and assets, but the structure must be strictly enforced, he said.

He urged finance and accounting professionals to maintain high standards of professional ethics and conduct, including in their communications on social media, to sustain trust across the capital market ecosystem.

The event was organised jointly by ICAB, ICMAB, ICSB, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Institute of Internal Auditors Bangladesh (IIAB). The weeklong programme will continue until October 12.