The government has decided to form two joint investigation teams to deal with anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing issues, officials said.
The decision was taken Tuesday at a meeting of the working committee formed earlier to make policies and implement directives on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
Members of the committee and representatives of the primary contact points under different agencies including Attorney General's Office, Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Bangladesh Bank (BB) and National Board of Revenue (NBR) were present at the meeting held at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
"We have decided to shape two joint investigation teams for strengthening anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing efforts. One team will work on anti-money laundering issue while another on anti-terror financing," Secretary of the BFID M Aslam Alam told the FE at his office.
Representatives from the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), NBR and Criminal Investigation Department (CID) will be included in the teams, he said.
Efforts made to combat corruption in the country are going on well. But the scenario of terror financing is not at satisfactory level in the country, he mentioned.
Meeting sources said the position of the country was reviewed in detail at the meeting to fulfil the upcoming third round mutual evaluation criteria set by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG). Country's preparation in this regard is also fine, they added.
The working committee works is assisting the National Coordination Committee on Anti-money Laundering (AML)/Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT). The committee is the highest body to implement the country's relevant acts on the issues.
The third round mutual evaluation by the APG will be held from October 11-23, 2015. The country has already submitted technical compliance response and effectiveness response in April and June last respectively to the APG as part of the evaluation process, a central bank source said.
The assessors of the APG will visit Bangladesh in October to scrutinise the information mentioned in the technical compliance response and effectiveness response. Earlier, the government formed the committee to assist the National Coordination Committee on AML/CFT.
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