Death March of the Capital Market: IPO Drought, Crisis of Confidence, and the Economic Devastation by the Yunus Syndicate

Bangladesh’s capital market is on the brink of collapse. For over eight months, not a single company has been granted an Initial Public Offering (IPO). In other words, the market is facing a total drought of new capital. Despite the capital market being the heart of any economy, it has been artificially paralysed. Investors have lost confidence, entrepreneurs lack motivation, and the regulatory authority—the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC)—is practically adrift. At the centre of this crisis is the incompetent leadership of Rashed Maksud, under whose tenure the commission abruptly cancelled 17 IPO applications, most without any justifiable grounds.

This economic decay is not an isolated incident. It results from a long-term strategy executed by a powerful syndicate led by Muhammad Yunus, supported by international patrons. This group has steered the economy away from productive capital toward a system based on loans and donations. The model of Grameen Bank, which initially spread a web of interest-based microcredit, has now infiltrated the state’s governance structure. The syndicate systematically turns the economy and capital market into a corporate colony. Backed by Western lobbies, the Yunus syndicate aims to shrink Bangladesh’s development model into a controlled economic outpost of institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. Their agenda is clear: dismantle production-based investment and replace it with an NGO-driven economy—a model that is already being realised.

Without new companies entering the stock market, there are no products to trade, and without products, there are no investors. Yet, since the current BSEC leadership took charge, IPO after IPO has been rejected, rendering the market nearly dead. In 2021, 15 companies raised approximately BDT 1,858 crore through IPOs. In comparison, only four companies entered the market in each of 2023 and 2024, raising just BDT 202 crore and BDT 645 crore, respectively. This isn’t just a numerical decline—it is a collapse of trust. Investors now describe the capital market as an “IPO-less desert,” blaming the commission’s negligence and incompetence. Even the DSE Brokers’ Association, BSEC’s internal welfare groups, and some commission members openly admit that the current leadership neither understands the market nor seems interested in doing so.

Parallel to this IPO crisis, a toxic transformation is taking place in Bangladesh’s social fabric. Islamist extremists are no longer confined to politics and the state; they now dominate social media as well. In response to any international humanitarian event, especially those involving non-Muslim victims, these extremists flood platforms with vitriolic hate. When Pope Francis passed away, almost all major Bangladeshi media outlets covered it, only to be met with an explosion of slander and hate speech against the Pope by these fanatics. Similarly, their reaction to the killing of non-Muslim tourists in Kashmir was chillingly consistent—they dehumanise anyone who isn’t Muslim. In their worldview, the Earth belongs solely to Muslims. This radical faction poisons social media with hatred while the capital market suffers from lethal stagnation. On one side, religious fanaticism is destroying national tolerance, and on the other, the economy is being dismantled to push future generations into financial servitude.

In this reality, Bangladesh has become not just a regional concern in South Asia but a growing threat to global stability. If immediate action isn’t taken against these extremists, state-level incompetence, and foreign-backed economic brokers, Bangladesh risks becoming not just IPO-less, but stateless, a symbol of systemic collapse. The country is no longer just a geographical territory; it has turned into a laboratory for a jihadist economy. If this blockade of economic progress and the broker-controlled leadership aren’t uprooted, the emptiness in the capital market today will soon become a void in our sovereignty.

Sources:
1. Capital supply in Bangladesh’s stock market comes to a halt
https://bddigest.com/news/21783/ 
2. Bangladesh IPO Market in Crisis – The Daily Star
https://www.thedailystar.net/business/economy/news/bangladesh-ipo-market-crisis-no-new-entries-months-3456191 
3. BSEC Faces Credibility Crisis – Dhaka Tribune
https://www.dhakatribune.com/business/2024/01/21/bsec-faces-credibility-crisis-over-ipo-approvals⁩