Investor protection and judicial enforcement of disclosure regime in Bangladesh: a critique

The effectiveness of any law largely depends on the clarity of legal provisions and the activity of their enforcement institutions. Securities law, which is inherently complex, must be unambiguous to be properly applied. Judges and lawyers dealing with securities litigation need to be trained properly to provide justice for the public. Laws governing initial public offerings in Bangladesh are ambiguous in many respects, and the judiciary lacks judges and lawyers sufficiently experienced in this area of law. As a result, judicial enforcement of disclosure requirements in prospectuses appears to have been a difficult task. The administrative enforcement of those requirements is not effective either. In such a situation, potential investors remain market-shy keeping the Bangladesh securities market moribund for years. This paper identifies the drawbacks of the existing mechanism of judicial enforcement of disclosure regime, and provides suggestions for their elimination.