Govt sits today to discuss AML strategies

The government will sit today (Tuesday) to discuss necessary strategies for pursuing the country's ongoing anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-terrorist financing efforts, officials said.
One of the key agendas of the meeting is to review the progress on the third round mutual evaluation set by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), they added.
The working committee formed to make policies and implement directives on preventing money laundering and terrorist financing in the country will discuss modus operandi with the secretary of the Bank and Financial Institutions Division (BFID) in the chair.
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 which were mentioned in the technical compliance response and effectiveness response.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body developing and promoting policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, has put forward 40 recommendations to comply for different countries to prevent money laundering and terror financing.
The mutual evaluation is completed through mutual discussions and communication with the countries concerned.
The FATF first carried out evaluation on preventive measures taken by Bangladesh on money laundering and terror financing in October 2002 and later in 2008. The International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) of the FATF identified Bangladesh as more risky country for money laundering and terrorist financing.
Later, Bangladesh prepared a time-bound action plan to remove its name from the risk list through discussions with the Asia Pacific Regional Review Group (AP-RRG). The country took initiatives to upgrade its status on the issues through implementation of various acts and regulations concerned in accordance with the action plan.
Bangladesh came out of grey list in 2014. This is the list of countries having bad records on money laundering and terror financing, on which the country was identified in 2008 by the FATF.
In October 2010, the task force recommended 28 time-bound actions Bangladesh needed to bring its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures to international standards, an official said.
The country (Bangladesh) will get poor score in the upcoming 3rd round mutual evaluation if the country's different ministries, divisions and agencies do not comply with the international standards on the money laundering and terrorist financing, sources concerned said.
The ministries, divisions and agencies will have to play an important role in obtaining good score in the ongoing mutual evaluation process, they said.
The government has taken initiatives to achieve the desired results from the evaluation considering it as national priority issue. But the activities are not being carried out as per expectations due to lack of coordination among the ministries, divisions and agencies concerned.
The money stashed in Swiss banks by a section of Bangladeshis has been increasing every year. It increased by 36 per cent in 2014 compared to that of 2013.
The funds held directly by Bangladeshi individuals and entities with banks in Switzerland stood at around 506 million Swiss francs (US$ 545 million or 54.5 crore) in 2014.
The amount is equivalent to around Tk 41.60 billion, just half the country's budget deficit proposed for the next fiscal year (FY) 2015-16.
A high official of the BFID said the country may fail to obtain good score and maintain its position on the list maintained by a Paris-based Financial Action Task Force.
"We will sit to review the preparation for the third round mutual evaluation. We will be able to do good over the issue," Secretary of the BFID M Aslam Alam told the FE.  
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) in 2012 formed the financial intelligence unit in line with suggestions made by the global body under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012.
Asia/Pacific Group, an affiliated body of FATF, works in the Asia and Pacific regions.
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