Suspicious financial transactions and activities increased significantly in the last fiscal in Bangladesh, mainly as "fraudulent activities" in e-commerce and multi-level marketing (MLM) businesses saw a spurt.
Such irregularities are evident in the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) annual report for FY'21 released Tuesday.
Submission of reports on suspicious transactions and activities soared 43.67 per cent to 5,280 in the FY 2020-21, from 3,675 in a year before, according to the BFIU report.
Reporting organizations, including banks, submitted the suspicious transaction reports (STR) and suspicious activity reports (SAR) to the intelligence agency of the country's financial sector during the period under review.
"Such rise in the STRs does not mean that the financial crimes or money-laundering activities have increased in the country," Md. Masud Biswas, newly appointed head of the BFIU, said while addressing a view-exchange meeting with the media.
Actually, increased STRs have been submitted due mainly to improved level of efficiency as well as awareness of the officials concerned, he adds.
"Although the Covid-19 situation existed during FY'21, the numbers of STR and SAR increased for several reasons, including capacity development and increased awareness of the reporting organizations...," he says.
"Fraudulent activities in e-commerce and MLM business, government's zero-tolerance policy against corruption etc are other reasons for such frisk of the STR and SAR submission," the BFIU says in its latest report.
On the other hand, submissions of cash transaction report also increased during the period under review for improving Covid-19 situation.
Such reports submitted by banks rose to 20.57 million transactions amounting to Tk 14436.21 billion in FY'21, from 16.14 million transactions amounting to Tk 11719.29 billion) in the previous fiscal year. Non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) sent 1267 transactions amounting to Tk 2.08 billion against 2177 transactions amounting to Tk 3.02 billion.
Under the existing provisions, the banks and NBFIs will have to submit CTRs on both withdrawal and deposit within the third week of the next month.
Both banks and NBFIs have to report it if an amount of Tk 1.0 million or more is deposited in or withdrawn in cash from a particular account in a single day.
"The number of CTRs is increasing gradually as the size of economy is growing day by day," an expert told the FE while replying to a query. "It also helps decrease the cash transactions."
However, information exchanges from law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) and intelligence agencies increased nearly 80 per cent to 1414 in FY'21 from 787 in FY'20, according to the BFIU report.
"Due to e-commerce scams, fraudulent activities during the Covid-19 pandemic, Bangladesh government's strong stance against corruption, the number of information requests has increased significantly," the BFIU explains.
The BFIU, as the central agency to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, analyzes the STRs, SARs and other information received from different sources, including media reports, and sends the potential cases to the LEAs concerned for further investigation.
In modern society, media act as a watchdog against malpractices and violations of the rule of law, according to the intelligence agency of the financial sector.
"Besides, the traditional media outlets such as newspapers, magazines, television and radio, contemporary online resources such as websites, blogs, social media etc have emerged as a potential source of information," the BFIU observes about the rise in financial-fraud disclosure.
Speaking on the occasion, Kamal Hossain, deputy general manager of the BFIU, explained different aspects of the annual report, saying that they are analyzing the STRs giving high, low and medium priority.
"We're providing information on different financial crimes or money laundering regularly to law-enforcing agencies for taking next course of auction," Mr Hossain said in reply to a query.
At the meeting, senior officials of the BFIU parried questions related to some outrageous cases of alleged money laundering, terming those "sensitive and involving legal obligations".
Among others, ABM Zahurul Huda, general manager of the BFIU, also spoke at the meet held at the central bank headquarters in Dhaka.
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