Staff Reporter :
The government decided to approve anti-money laundering (amendment) ordinance at the cabinet committee’s meeting on Tuesday, said officials.
In August, an amendment to the Money Laundering Prevention Act was initially approved at the cabinet committee meeting, but could not be placed in Parliament.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) team of Asia Pacific Group on combating money laundering and terrorist financing will evaluate Bangladesh’s regulatory and functional capabilities in tackling the recent terrorist threats and poor records in containing unabated money laundering, said Bank and Financial Institutions Division Secretary M Aslam Alam.
The visit, scheduled on October 11-22, will be undertaken by the evaluation team comprising experts of Asia Pacific Group on money laundering.
Referring to recent killing of two foreigners in Bangladesh, M Aslam Alam said that the implementation of money laundering and terrorist financing laws in the country could help prevent such incidents and transaction of illegal money.
Officials concerned at Bank Division and Bangladesh Bank fear that the forthcoming evaluation by the APG team could place Bangladesh further in the “grey list” of FATF after recent official warnings issued by a number of western countries that militants might attack their citizens and interests in Bangladesh.
“It is a bad time for us being evaluated by the APG now, as the evaluation team has taken into consideration the recent killing of an Italian and a Japanese, and travel alerts by a number of countries along with Australia’s calling off of cricket tour of Bangladesh,” another official, requesting anonymity, said.
He said that the APG team cancelled a number of meetings, scheduled earlier, with revenue board, police department and anti-corruption commission and with a number of private sector establishments during their stay.
The team members would now hold meetings only in finance ministry and BB as they feel insecure amid perceived terrorist threats, sources said.
However, a number of BB senior officials believe that the evaluation would not turn out to be sour, as feared by some quarters. They admitted the recent killing of two foreigners might be a cause for APG to underestimate Bangladesh’s efforts to combat terrorist networks and money laundering.
“We have made a lot of progress towards formulating adequate rules and regulations on combating terrorist financing and money laundering as proposed by FATF and APG,” secretary said.
Bangladesh Bank official said that the recent spate of travel warnings by some western countries and killing of two foreign citizens could not outright demean Bangladesh as far as the list of FATF is concerned.
As per the amendment, the Anti-Corruption Commission will investigate the money laundering allegations relating to corruption and bribe only while agencies concerned like police, customs and narcotics department would investigate other predicated offences.
Secondly, the amendment has incorporated the provision of joint investigation by different agencies and strengthening the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of the central bank for investigation into the offences relating to money laundering.
Thirdly, the amendment proposed for 4-12 years imprisonment and fine of Tk20 lakh or at least double of the laundering amount or assets, which is higher, according to the draft ordinance.
As per the ordinance, BFIU will be a body under the central bank with operational autonomy. The head of the unit will be appointed by the government for four years and will be picked up through a search committee.
Bangladesh in 2014 got out of the grey list, the list of countries having bad records on money laundering, on which the country was placed in 2008 by FATF.
In October 2010, the task force recommended for 28 time-bound actions Bangladesh needed to bring its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures to international standards.
The APG is an affiliate body of the FATF and mainly maintains the role of observer in the Asia and Pacific region. The FATF and APG have long been pressing the government to accelerate investigations of money laundering cases and improving ACC’s poor capacity to handle the issue promptly and efficiently.
The government decided to approve anti-money laundering (amendment) ordinance at the cabinet committee’s meeting on Tuesday, said officials.
In August, an amendment to the Money Laundering Prevention Act was initially approved at the cabinet committee meeting, but could not be placed in Parliament.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) team of Asia Pacific Group on combating money laundering and terrorist financing will evaluate Bangladesh’s regulatory and functional capabilities in tackling the recent terrorist threats and poor records in containing unabated money laundering, said Bank and Financial Institutions Division Secretary M Aslam Alam.
The visit, scheduled on October 11-22, will be undertaken by the evaluation team comprising experts of Asia Pacific Group on money laundering.
Referring to recent killing of two foreigners in Bangladesh, M Aslam Alam said that the implementation of money laundering and terrorist financing laws in the country could help prevent such incidents and transaction of illegal money.
Officials concerned at Bank Division and Bangladesh Bank fear that the forthcoming evaluation by the APG team could place Bangladesh further in the “grey list” of FATF after recent official warnings issued by a number of western countries that militants might attack their citizens and interests in Bangladesh.
“It is a bad time for us being evaluated by the APG now, as the evaluation team has taken into consideration the recent killing of an Italian and a Japanese, and travel alerts by a number of countries along with Australia’s calling off of cricket tour of Bangladesh,” another official, requesting anonymity, said.
He said that the APG team cancelled a number of meetings, scheduled earlier, with revenue board, police department and anti-corruption commission and with a number of private sector establishments during their stay.
The team members would now hold meetings only in finance ministry and BB as they feel insecure amid perceived terrorist threats, sources said.
However, a number of BB senior officials believe that the evaluation would not turn out to be sour, as feared by some quarters. They admitted the recent killing of two foreigners might be a cause for APG to underestimate Bangladesh’s efforts to combat terrorist networks and money laundering.
“We have made a lot of progress towards formulating adequate rules and regulations on combating terrorist financing and money laundering as proposed by FATF and APG,” secretary said.
Bangladesh Bank official said that the recent spate of travel warnings by some western countries and killing of two foreign citizens could not outright demean Bangladesh as far as the list of FATF is concerned.
As per the amendment, the Anti-Corruption Commission will investigate the money laundering allegations relating to corruption and bribe only while agencies concerned like police, customs and narcotics department would investigate other predicated offences.
Secondly, the amendment has incorporated the provision of joint investigation by different agencies and strengthening the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of the central bank for investigation into the offences relating to money laundering.
Thirdly, the amendment proposed for 4-12 years imprisonment and fine of Tk20 lakh or at least double of the laundering amount or assets, which is higher, according to the draft ordinance.
As per the ordinance, BFIU will be a body under the central bank with operational autonomy. The head of the unit will be appointed by the government for four years and will be picked up through a search committee.
Bangladesh in 2014 got out of the grey list, the list of countries having bad records on money laundering, on which the country was placed in 2008 by FATF.
In October 2010, the task force recommended for 28 time-bound actions Bangladesh needed to bring its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures to international standards.
The APG is an affiliate body of the FATF and mainly maintains the role of observer in the Asia and Pacific region. The FATF and APG have long been pressing the government to accelerate investigations of money laundering cases and improving ACC’s poor capacity to handle the issue promptly and efficiently.
