The New Nation - Internet Edition

BANGLADESH chapter of the International Chamber of Commerce, recently, held a workshop in the capital city under the banner 'International Fraud - Prevention, Control and Remedies' with a call to both the government and the financial institutions to be careful to prevent fraud in international trade transactions. 'As international trade of the country is growing, authorities and financial institutions here need to be cautious and careful while dealing with transactions internationally, the ICC president was quoted to have said while inaugurating the day-long workshop.

Commercial crime is growing faster than international trade and it is found that frauds are more complex and involve larger sums than ever before. As international trade is growing fast in Bangladesh, all parties involved in the trade are also getting exposed to risk of international trade finance fraud. Any system, which depends purely on documents, would be vulnerable to abuse by money launderers. So, parties involved in transactions need to remain careful. The more the market of import-export is expanding, the more the traders are facing the risk of unknown events including fraud. In most cases of documentary fraud, the banks, in one way or the other, lose. At the very least, the fraud will strain the relations between the bank and its customer correspondent banks in the letter of credit chain.

It was pointed out at the workshop that Bangladesh is more vulnerable as pirates are even targeting ships that anchor here. Those who are involved in international trading, particularly in export-import, obviously, are coming across various such problems already in different countries where international networks of fraudulence are linked. The International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh by arranging the workshop in this regard has timely cautioned all concerned about growing global commercial crimes as the country's international trade marks a rapid growth.