The New Nation - Internet Edition

BUSINESS REPORT

Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of the country will sign an agreement with Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank of Malaysia today (Tuesday) on sharing information to recover siphoned off money as part of its anti-graft campaign.

Bangladesh Bank's Financial Intelligence Unit will sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with their central bank counterpart in Kuala Lumpur today as negotiations are underway with 24 other countries for similar agreements.

Bangladesh Bank is also expected to sign similar agreements with the central banks of several countries including India.

The Bangladesh Bank is also trying to join the Egmont Group, an organisation of financial intelligence units, to share information on and combat money laundering and terror financing.

The Bangladesh government believes Malaysia to be one of the major destinations of the money smuggled out of the country.

According to the World Bank, the cross-border flow of proceeds from criminal activities, corruption and tax evasion is estimated at between $1 trillion and $1.6 trillion per year - half of this originating from developing and transitional economies.

Bangladesh Bank officials said the deal with Kuala Lumpur was focused on sharing information on money laundering to facilitate investigation of cases against the corruption suspects.

"The government will negotiate the issue of further cooperation in repatriation of the smuggled money later on," as many corruption suspects invested huge money in Malaysia taking advantage of the Malaysian "Second Home Project", a central bank official said yesterday.

Officials said that according to their estimates millions of dollars were siphoned off the country by corrupt politicians but a process was underway to bring back the money while the corruption suspects were forced to return already $129 million.

A senior official of the Ministry of Finance earlier said that Bangladesh also applied for the membership in Egmond Group, a worldwide association of agencies operating against money laundering, alongside signing bilateral deals with several countries to return the smuggled money. Countries like Canada, UK, US and Australia have asked Bangladesh to become a member of Egmond Group.

The Foreign Ministry last year requested the Malaysian government to provide Bangladesh with a list of the people who had availed the opportunity of the Second Home Project but Malaysia did not respond to the proposal at that time.

But once the MoU is signed, Kuala Lumpur is expected to provide detailed information on particular Bangladeshis, the central bank officials said.

Twenty-five other countries with which the Bangladesh Bank is trying to pen similar agreements included India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Mauritius, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, Maldives, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia.