Central bank to introduce uniform KYC form soon

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FE Report
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) will introduce an identical 'Know Your Customer (KYC)' form for the commercial banks to help check illegal fund transfer, official sources said.
Currently, banks are using different types of forms for preparing KYC profiles on the basis of information, provided by the account holders, to assess any financial risks of the clients.
"We are now working to introduce such form to collect similar information from all banks that will also help strengthen our monitoring system," a BB senior official told the FE.
He also said the central bank has taken the move in line with the bankers' proposal.
A six-member committee, headed by Deputy General Manager of the Anti-Money Laundering Department of the central bank Swapan Kumar Biswas, is now working on devising such form, the sources added.
The committee has already prepared a draft form and sought opinions of its members to finalise the form.
"We will finalise the form on the basis of discussion among the members of the committee," a member of the committee said, adding that such form will help the customers to remove their shyness about providing information.
The central bank earlier instructed the banks to maintain 'the transaction profile method' properly for opening of any accounts under KYC system to check suspicious transactions.
Besides, the central bank is now working on the modification of its suspicious transaction report (STR) form for collecting accurate information about the suspicious deals that will also help check illegal fund transfers.
Two modified STR forms have already been submitted to the concerned authorities of the central bank for their consideration, the sources noted.
Under the existing Anti-Money Laundering Act, the banks will have to inform Anti-Money Laundering Department of the central bank instantly if it detects any suspicious transaction.
The central bank will impose penalty in the range between Tk 10,000 and Tk 100,000 if the banks fail to follow the rules and regulations, according to the provisions.