Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The central bank is yet to make any headway in collecting information about the secret accounts held by the Bangladeshi citizens in Swiss banks owing to the alpine nations’ domestic legal barriers and treaty limitations, officials said.
Earlier, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) wrote to the Money Laundering Reporting Office (MLRO) of Switzerland showing the interest of signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with it for sharing information on money laundering.
The BFIU is operating under the Bangladesh Bank (BB) generally looks into cases of money laundering, terror financing and suspicious money movement in and outside the country.
“We have already approached the MLRO of Switzerland for signing the deal, but it is yet to give a positive response in this regard,” BB spokesperson M Mahfuzur Rahman told The New Nation on Saturday. He added: Such a deal is necessary to get access to information on the secret accounts of Bangladeshi citizens in general. The move of BFIU came after Switzerland’s central bank disclosed that Bangladeshi citizens’ deposits with different Swiss banks rose by 62 per cent year-on-year in 2013. The deposits, which stood at Tk 3,236 crore (372 million Swiss franc) at the end of 2013, were Tk 1,991 crore in 2012, show the latest data of the Swiss National Bank.
“The Swiss government has been maintaining a secret policy regarding the foreign nationals’ bank accounts held in Swiss banks. It has also legal barriers in sharing such information to world governments. And that is why the MLRO of Switzerland is hesitating to ink such a deal,” Mahfuz said. “Still we’re keep on perusing the matter with Swiss authorities. Besides, discussion is also going on with the concerned Swiss officials in various international forums. We hope we will be able to strike a deal in this regard with them soon,” he noted.
He said they might not share information in general without striking a deal but they have already shared information on some selected Bangladeshi nationals. Earlier, the BFIU has sought accounts information about five political and financial elites of the country and they provided it to us, Mahfuz added. Mahfuz, an Executive Director of BB, however, denied giving the details of the persons saying that they are not holding accounts in Swiss banks.
When asked, he said, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), India, is perusing the same issue with the Swiss authorities on behalf of the Indian government.
They also followed the same formalities to get the information of Indian citizens’ balances in Swiss banks.
Referring media reports, the BB spokesperson said, the CBDT might have collected data of some 100 secret accounts of Indian citizens provided by two Swiss banks through both official and unofficial channels.
