Govt sits tomorrow to review its anti-money laundering efforts

The government is likely to sit tomorrow (Thursday) to review the country's ongoing anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-terrorist financing efforts aiming to adopt effective strategies in this regard, officials said.
One of the key agendas of the meeting is to review the progress on an action plan which was prepared as per the recommendations made by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) after reviewing the third round mutual evaluation (ME), they added.
Besides, implementation progress on memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) and law enforcement agencies and regulatory agencies will come up for review in the meeting, they mentioned.
The third round ME on Bangladesh was accepted in an annual meeting of APG held in October last.  
A deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank (BB) and head of BFIU presented the action plan in the meeting of the National Coordination committee (NCC) on anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-terrorist financing. The meeting was held on October 31 with the finance minister in the chair.
It was decided in the meeting that respective agencies would send their opinions on the action plan.
A working committee formed to make policies and implement directives on preventing money laundering and terrorist financing in the country is likely to discuss modus operandi on Thursday next with the secretary of Bank and Financial Institutions Division (BFID) in the chair.
In the action plan, different programmes have been taken to improve and comply with international standards for fighting money laundering and terrorist financing by the country's different ministries, divisions and agencies.
The annual general meeting (AGM) of APG will be held in July next. A progress report on recommended actions will be submitted in the meeting as part of the evaluation process, a central bank source said.
Besides, Bangladesh has included an enhanced follow-up according to the process of the third round mutual evaluation. As part of the move, a report on implementation of progress on the action plan will be sent to the APG on April 01 next.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) in 2012 formed the financial intelligence unit in line with the suggestions made by the global body under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012.
The Asia/Pacific Group, an affiliated body of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), works in Asia and the Pacific regions.
rezamumu@gmail.com