Bank account maintenance to be streamlined further

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Shakhawat Hossain
A meeting on anti-money laundering measures held Tuesday at the ministry of finance decided to streamline further the bank account maintenance and ensure exchange of information among sea and land and airports, official source said.
The decision to streamline bank account maintenance of individuals and companies has been taken to stop illegal financial transactions through banking channel and detect fake account holders.
Exchange of information among officials of sea, land, airports and customs is considered very important to combat terrorist activities by way of illegal smuggling of arms and ammunitions, sources added.
Acting finance secretary Mohammad Tareque presided over the meeting attended by high officials of the central bank and other ministries.
Sources said the decisions have been taken following the central bank's suggestions in accordance with the United Nations (UN) guidelines on banking operation.
Last month a UN Counter Terrorism Committee, headed by team leader Sergey Karev, visited the country and agreed to provide technical assistance to help the country combat terror-related financing.
The UN team also made a number of suggestions that included installation of modern scanning machines at the sea, land and airports after evaluating the existing policy and international cooperation on border control facilities.
During its weeklong visit, the UN team met with officials concerned and exchanged ideas on counter-terrorism and anti-money laundering. It suggested the government to strengthen the counter-terror legislation and its enforcement and clamp down on cross-border terrorism.
The team expressed its interest to provide Bangladesh relevant software, hardware and training to address the problem of money laundering.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) is in the process of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the UK-based Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to address the issue of money laundering, source said.
Besides, the country has been planning to introduce a tougher law replacing the existing Anti-Money Laundering Act 2002 that will have provisions for the prevention of terrorist financing.
The draft law seeks to empower the BB to suspend or stop operation of any account involved in suspicious transactions for 30 days without any prior notice.
Trial of the suspected accountholders under the country's existing criminal law with a maximum sentence of seven years in prison for any individual or group, if found guilty of money laundering or terrorist financing, has been sought.
Drafted by the immediate past political regime, the law is yet to be passed, sources said.