BB plans anti-money laundering pacts with ten countries

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The central bank plans to sign deals with its counterparts in 10 countries to prevent Bangladeshis siphoning off money out of the country, an official said Friday, reports bdnews24.com.
"The number of countries, with which agreements would be signed, could be 10," a Bangladesh Bank director told the news agency by phone, asking not to be named, as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Bangladesh Bank's Financial Intelligence Unit is fine-tuning a bilateral agreement with Malaysia's central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, to curb money-laundering, which the caretaker government viewed as a "serious national problem", Malaysia's official news agency Bernama reports.
"It is a serious problem for us and we will be signing an agreement with Malaysia to exchange information to stop people from siphoning off money out of the country," Bernama quoted another senior Bangladesh Bank official familiar with the planned agreement as saying.
Bangladesh plans to sign pacts with Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK, the United Arab Emirates and the US, among others.
The authorities set up a taskforce, comprising members of the Attorney-General's Office, home ministry and the central bank to liaise with foreign counterparts to reclaim illegal assets taken out of the country. The central bank governor is the chief of the taskforce.
About 10 Bangladeshi officials will attend World Bank-funded training on "Stolen Assets Recovery" in Switzerland later this month, the agency said.
An amended anti-money laundering ordinance will be put in place to give Bangladesh Bank more clout to recover the money, it said.