LankaBangla Securities Limited (LBSL) and Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to start the first ever digital financial trading lab at the university level in the country.

The MoU was signed at the IUB campus on June 12, 2022. Mohammed Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, Managing Director of LBSL, and Tanweer Hasan, PhD, Vice Chancellor of IUB, signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organisations.

The lab is being set up under the Industry-Academia Collaboration Initiatives of IUB's School of Business and Entrepreneurship (SBE). Under the supervision and guidance of LBSL experts and IUB's finance professors, groups of selected third and final year students of IUB will get to learn how Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchanges operate.

Under strict supervision and subject to getting permission from their guardians, students will learn and get to open their own BO accounts, carry out transactions at the stock markets, and also learn to analyse market trends and their own trading decisions. In addition, they will also be able to use the trading portal and a number of proprietary applications and software of LBSL.

Speaking at the program, Abdul Hai Sarker, Chairman of the IUB Board of Trustees, said, "If our students can be made familiar with the practical world, it will be easier for them to start their careers after graduation. That is why we need to mitigate the gap between the industry, such as the financial institutions, and the universities."

Mohammad A Moyeen, Chairman of LBSL, said, "The capital market of a country has a direct relationship with its industrialisation and economic development. I hope that this partnership with IUB will create a bridge between industry and academia to develop the capital market."

Tanweer Hasan, PhD, Vice Chancellor of IUB, said, "As can happen in any small capital market, there are inefficiencies and swings in the Bangladeshi capital market as well. To overcome these issues, investor education is needed. We need to have an informed group of investors who know what they are getting into. I laud the Securities and Exchange Commission for holding seminars and workshops around the country to educate investors. But for this, there can be no better place than the universities, where we are producing the next generation of leaders."

Towhid Samad, member of the IUB Board of Trustees; Khandoker Saffat Reza, CEO of LBSL; Prof. Niaz Ahmed Khan, PhD, Pro Vice Chancellor of IUB; Prof. Meherun Ahmed, PhD, Dean of IUB's SBE; and Samiul Parvez Ahmed, PhD, Associate Professor and Head IUB's Department of Finance; also spoke at the event.