Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury has urged Accountants to practice self-regulation to ensure transparency and accountability in the financial sector. He emphasized the crucial needs for ensuring utmost transparency and accountability to achieve overall economic stability and sustainable growth in the country, as well as to restore the confidence of both domestic and foreign investors in the capital market and financial sector. In particular, he stressed that Chartered Accountants and Cost & Management Accountants must uphold their professional integrity to portray an accurate and fair financial picture of each institution.
The Finance Minister made these remarks while addressing as the Chief Guest at the FAR Summit held at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the capital today. The summit was organized by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in collaboration with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) and the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB). The theme of this year’s summit was ‘Trustworthy Financial Reporting: What Really Matters.’
Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury noted that in recent years, the economy of Bangladesh has gone through a turbulent phase. Our regulatory agencies, oversight systems, and watchdog bodies became almost dysfunctional, leading to a degree of chaos in the financial sector. Weak companies managed to get listed on the capital market through false reporting or misrepresentation, which discouraged good and fundamentally strong companies from entering the market.
Highlighting institutional reforms as key to overcome the current crisis in the financial sector, the Finance Minister said, we are standing at a crossroads. The current government aims to build an economic system characterized by absolute transparency and accountability. Our economic future depends heavily on how institutions like the FRC, ICAB, and ICMAB function. It is impossible for any regulatory body to micromanage or catch errors on a daily basis; therefore, accountants themselves and their respective bodies must take the lead in self-regulation first.
Reflecting on his past experience as Commerce Minister, he added that just as the private sector was trusted in the past by assigning BGMEA the responsibility of issuing UD certificates-a task they executed successfully-ICAB and ICMAB must not limit themselves to merely organizing Annual General Meetings (AGMs) or dinners. Instead, they must strictly regulate how their members perform and ensure that proper, authentic audits are conducted.
Highlighting the fresh opportunities emerging for Bangladesh in the international market, the Finance Minister said, major global fund managers and investors are now showing immense interest in Bangladesh. World-renowned investment entities, including JPMorgan, want to operate in Bangladesh. We are planning to float Bangladesh-dedicated funds in Hong Kong and London, alongside launching domestic bonds. However, the primary prerequisite for attracting such massive Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is reliable financial reporting. If investors cannot trust audit reports, no amount of reform will yield results.
He earnestly urged all relevant stakeholders in the capital market, National Board of Revenue (NBR), and the financial sector to step forward and contribute to the ongoing reform initiatives, advising them to move past short-term gains and focus on building a global-standard financial ecosystem for the greater interest of the nation.
Presided over by the Finance Secretary Dr. Md. Khairuzzaman Mozumder, the event was attended by Dr. Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, Financial Adviser to the Prime Minister, and Md. Abul Kalam, and Vice President of BTMA, as Special Guests. The keynote paper was presented by Dr. Md. Sajjad Hossain Bhuiyan, Chairman of the FRC.
