The central bank of Switzerland releases reports on how much money is deposited by Bangladeshi nationals to various Swiss banks. However, it is a matter of regret that neither the government nor any other institution in the country has taken an initiative to find out the identities of those who have deposited their money to these banks and how they transferred the same there.
According to an annual banking report released on Thursday, Bangladeshi individuals deposited 332.234 million Swiss francs equivalent to Tk 302 crore to Swiss banks in 2020, a 62.60 per cent increase compared to that of the previous year. The growth rate of the deposits by Bangladeshi individuals is the highest in South Asia. Sri Lankan individuals deposited 42.39 million francs in 2020, a 17.73 per cent increase while Pakistanis showed an increase of 10.14 pc to 382.97 million francs. The deposits of Bangladeshi nationals in banks in 2019 totalled 603.02 million francs (Tk 5,367 crore). In 2018 this was around 620 million francs, that is around Tk 5518 crore.
Economists have said if the government was interested, they could easily get information on who are the owners of this money. Over the past decade, international law has been drawn up to reveal such information. Eminent citizens of the country have demanded that an initiative be taken to identify these persons. They said under international law, various countries collect information about money laundering.
As we know Bangladesh has its own agency for the prevention of money laundering and terror funding. The agency — the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) under Bangladesh Bank — is to gather information on any sort of suspicious transactions and capital flight. This unit has legally been given the responsibility to exchange information with foreign partners concerning money laundering and terror funding. Yet the agency has no information on who are the Bangladeshis depositing money to the Swiss banks.
Just as money is illegally smuggled out of the country to Swiss bank accounts, Bangladeshis living overseas also deposit their money there. So the deposits by Bangladeshis to Swiss banks include both legal and illegal funds. Since Switzerland is a signatory to the UN anti-corruption convention they release information of the deposits of persons from all over the world every year. India has started looking into the Swiss bank accounts of their nationals and so the deposits of Indians in the Swiss banks have decreased. Bangladesh may also get similar results if such an initiative is taken.
