The Bangladesh Bank (BB) is going to share suspicious transaction reports (STRs) with all commercial banks by using goAML software so that banks can become aware of their clients involved in suspicious transactions.
Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) is working to have an online connectivity among the banks through the new software, BB sources said.
"If the connectivity through the software is in place, all the commercial and state-owned banks will able to share their STR information among them by maintaining necessary confidentiality," a BB high official said.
The central bank has taken the initiative to install the intelligence software, received from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), for surveillance and detection of terror financing and money laundering.
According to a top BB official, for identifying people engaged in unlawful financial activities, the government would link up the country's bank and financial institutions, stock exchanges, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), National Board of Revenue (NBR), real estate companies, jewellery shops, and intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the BB's goAML server.
Furthermore, the government is framing a new National Strategy Paper on Money Laundering and Terror Financing for the period between 2014 and 2016. In a review
of implementation of the existing strategy paper for the 2011-2013 period, the government found it to be satisfactory.
"We will ask the government agencies, organisations and the institutions to register with goAML", the official said on condition of anonymity.
"After completing the registration, the government bodies concerned will send us data, which goAML will analyse in five minutes. Currently, analysing data manually takes three to four days," he added.
A recent study has revealed that the NBR is losing around Tk 10.0 billion in revenues every year, due to capital flight.
Sources said the authorities had signed an anti-money laundering agreement, as a mutual legal assistance, with the US, Singapore, the UK, the UAE and Malaysia, to combat terror financing and detect fraudulent transactions by militants, corrupt officials, and business tycoons.
According to the UNODC website, the software named goAML was developed by the Information Technology Service, UNODC, in partnership with the UNODC Global Programme against Money Laundering, Proceeds of Crime and the Financing of Terrorism. An integrated software solution, 'goAML' was developed specifically for use by FIUs.
It integrates 14 separate functions into one package, that include: data collection, cleaning up, ad hoc queries and matching, statistical reports, structured analysis, profiling, rule-based analysis, workflow system, task assignment tracking and document management. Other features include an intelligence file management system, data integration, data acquisition, charting, diagramming and intelligence report writing.
According to UNODC website, the FIU should pay a one-off fee for installation and initial training in goAML, with a recurring annual maintenance fee. The UNODC supplies the initial software package itself free of charge. Sources say the UN has proposed that experts be assigned for five years, overseeing the maintenance of the software. "Adopting goAML can save for an FIU a lot of money and development time," the UNODC website states.
Denmark, Mauritius, Azerbaijan, the Netherlands, South Africa, Bermuda, Mozambique, Palestine, Finland, Morocco, Tanzania and Nigeria are among the nations that have been delivered the goAML software, according to the UNODC software department.
