The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Speakers at a workshop said that the government and financial institutions should play their respective roles in detecting, preventing and taking repressive action in money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Money Laundering Prevention Ordinance 2008 can play vital role for reducing terrorist financing in the country, the speakers said this at a daylong workshop on 'Money Laundering Prevention Ordinance-2008'. The Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) organised this at its Conference Room yesterday. Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank (BB) Ziaul Hassan Siddique was present as chief guest in the inaugural session of the workshop.

Ziaul Hassan Siddiqui said that if the concerned authorities fail to prevent people from money laundering it will enhance criminal activities in Bangladesh.

"Money laundering might make financial institution vulnerable," he said, adding, if the authorities fail to prevent money laundering, it may encourage people to undermine laws.

The BB Deputy Governor stressed on the importance of adopting the new anti-money laundering act-2008.

Prof Asif Nazrul of Dhaka University said that the Bangladesh Bank should train up its staff to draw up effective anti-money laundering act.

Former Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank Nazmul Hasan in his keynote paper said, "Money laundering is the criminal practice of filtering ill-gotten gains or dirty money through a series of transactions so as to give the money a look that the money appears to have originated from legal activities."

He emphasised that the Bangladesh Bank has to develop expertise to understand and analyse the operations of reporting agencies as to be able to detect the money laundering trail.

He said that the concerned agencies need to keep a close watch over alternative remittance mechanism to keep track of money laundering and terrorist financing.

Head of Legal and Compliance of Standard Chartered Bank Chowdhury MAQ Sarwar said that Bangladesh has been leading the way in South Asia to have criminalised money laundering well ahead of India, Pakistan,

Sri Lanka, Nepal and Afghanistan through enactment of money laundering prevention act 2002 now repealed by the money laundering prevention ordinance 2008.

Money laundering is a process whereby the illicit proceeds of crime are hidden or transformed so that criminals can be used or re-invested into a criminal organisation, he observed.

Bangladesh Bank has been invested with wide powers and authority to take necessary measures to prevent and detect transaction intended to commit offence under this ordinance through any banking channel, he recommended.

Bangladesh Bank has been empowered to authorise to call for reports about suspicious transaction from banks, compile and preserve all statistics and records related to terrorist financing, create and maintained a database of all suspicious transaction reports, monitor and observe the activities of the banks and provide training to staffs and officers of banks for the purpose of dictation and prevention of suspicious transactions as may be connected with terrorist financing, Sarwar also said recommended.

General Manager of Anti-Money Laundering Department of Bangladesh Bank Mahfusur Rahman in his paper said that the proposed mobile banking might facilitate terrorist financing, money laundering as well as promotion of illegal 'Hundi' business.

BEI President Farooq Sobhan said that anti-money laundering act has a profound impact on countering terrorism as no terrorist organisation survives without financial transaction.

He said that Bangladesh Bank and commercial banks should take appropriate actions to reduce financial transactions through informal or illegal channels. In this regard, monitoring the movement of funds on the part of financial institutes has turned out a matter of greater importance, he added.