The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has decided to abandon its earlier plan to monitor the voice calls and internet data of stock market investors.

This decision was made during a meeting yesterday at the BSEC office in Dhaka, which was led by newly appointed BSEC Chairman Khondoker Rashed Maqsood.

Prof. Shibli Rubayat-Ul Islam, the former chairman of the stock market regulator, initially proposed the initiative to bring investor communications under surveillance.

Earlier this year, he sought approval from the Financial Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC), an agency under the Ministry of Home Affairs responsible for communication interception and intelligence gathering.

Prof. Shibli resigned from his position on August 10, five days after the fall of the Awami League government, due to a student-led uprising. He justified the surveillance proposal as a means to curb stock market manipulation and insider trading.

However, the proposal sparked significant concern among investors, many of whom viewed it as an invasion of privacy.

In light of the backlash, the BSEC convened yesterday’s meeting, at which Chairman Maqsood decided to scrap the surveillance plan. The BSEC also announced in a press release that it would request the Financial Institutions Division disregard Prof. Shibli’s earlier letter seeking approval for the MoU with the NTMC.