Banks asked to monitor money handling carefully
09 March 2017
Anisul Islam Noor :
The central bank has directed the commercial banks to watch the money handling in the banking channel carefully in order to stop terror financing both at home and abroad.
The Bangladesh Bank issued the direction across the country recently.
Head of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) AHM Razee Hassan said, it had asked the banks to monitor especially so that no one can use the banking sector for terror financing.
A guideline for checking money laundering and terror financing through e-commerce will be issued soon also, he said.
Such a strict instruction came from a conference of chief anti-money laundering compliance officials, generally known as CAMLCO recently.
The BFIU will meet the CAMLCOs of non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) within the next two months for taking effective measures to comply with rules and regulations of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating Financing of Terrorism (CFT) issues properly to check illegal fund transfers, said Razee Hassan who is also the deputy governor of BB.
He also said, the BIFU will also meet the officials concerned of insurances and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in preparation for a greater combat against such financial offences.
The banks have also been instructed to make their board of directors aware about combating the financing of terrorism by the end of 2017, he added.
Besides, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) has asked the banks to build up public awareness about combating the financing of terrorism across the country through posturing and initiatives.
A senior official of BB said, the BIFU might take stern action against any chairman, chief executive officer or managing director of any bank if they do not go by the BB instructions related to the AML and CFT in line with the existing Anti-Terrorism Act 2009.
The local offices of foreign commercial banks will have to inform the BFIU prior to termination of any corresponding banking services with local commercial banks as per the new direction.
The bankers have also been asked to submit suspicious-transaction report (STR) and cash-transaction report (CTR) to the BFIU of the central bank timely to help curb money laundering and terror financing.
Besides, the central bank had asked the bankers to comply with 'know your customer (KYC)' provisions properly to check illegal fund transfer.
