Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN): The securities regulator Tuesday approved the trust deed of an open-end mutual fund – Alif Islamic Income Fund (AIIF) – and allowed Sandhani Life Finance to work as a full merchant bank.

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) also ruled out any possibility of extending the timeframe for conversion of omnibus accounts.

The decisions were taken at a commission meeting, chaired by BSEC Chairman Professor M Khairul Hossain.

As per the regulatory approval, Alif Islamic Income Fund will start its operation with an initial size of Tk 100 million. Alif Assets Management is the fund manager of AIIF.

The BSEC decided to issue a letter of intent to Sandhani Life Finance for carrying out its job as a full merchant bank following the company’s application.

The BSEC also rejected merchant banks’ request to extend the deadline for replacing the omnibus accounts with individual beneficiary owner (BO) accounts. The deadline is end tomorrow (Thursday).

The securities regulator has also imposed a penalty of Tk 0.5 million on Hasnaine Harun, a sponsor-director of Takaful Islami Insurance, for breaching insider trading rules in transacting his company’s shares.—

BBN/BB/AD/27Feb-13-10.20pm (BST).