The banks have been asked to be more cautious about abnormal cash withdrawal and trade miss-invoicing to prevent illegal capital flight, officials said.
The instruction came from a meeting of the central taskforce on anti-money laundering, held at the Bangladesh Bank (BB) headquarters on Thursday with BB Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury in the chair.
The taskforce's latest move came against the backdrop of rising trend in illicit money outflows from Bangladesh, as reported by Global Financial Integrity (GFI).
The latest findings of GFI show that 'illicit financial outflows' from Bangladesh averaged, on an annual basis, at $1.3 billion between 2003 and 2012.
Besides, some 3,005 Bangladeshis have availed Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) facility during the last 12 years since inception of the residency programme in 2002, siphoning off substantial amounts of money.
The banks have also been advised to comply with know your client (KYC) provision properly, using the national identity card (NID) database through the central bank's server.
"We've sought information on illegal outflow of funds from some countries to probe into the matter," Mr. Chowdhury told the FE after the meeting.
He also said BB will extend all-out cooperation and assistance to other agencies concerned for curbing money laundering and terror financing.
"We've asked the banks to collect detailed information on customers and monitor their transactions closely."
The BB deputy governor also said the taskforce asked the banks for taking the highest cautionary measures, so that no one can use the banking channel for terror financing both at home and aboard.
siddique.islam@gmail.com
Be more cautious to curb illegal capital flight
Siddique Islam | Published: April 17, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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