A visiting delegation of Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) has expressed satisfaction over the preventive steps taken by the Bangladesh government to stop financing militancy and terrorism, sources concerned said.
The eight-member team headed by David Shannon expressed its appreciation at a meeting with the national coordination committee at the secretariat yesterday to make policies and directives on anti-money laundering and combat terrorism financing under its third review.
Speaking to a group of journalists after the meeting, State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan said: “We briefed the delegation on present (anti-money laundering) measures and situations of Bangladesh and primarily they appreciated us.”
“They (the delegation) did not tell anything that they are afraid about money laundering aspects here in Bangladesh. They know we lack skill and capacity, but we have assured them that we would overcome our deficiency soon,” added the minister.
The APG delegation is in the capital city on an 11-day visit.
According to the working paper, Bangladesh hopes that APG will rate the country well under mutual evaluation process although that is too lengthy.
After receiving a good rating from APG, the expenditure of foreign trade will decline while the foreign loan and grant will increase, plus the image of Bangladesh will be brightened as it will be recognised as a compliant country under the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) and APG evaluation, adds the working paper.
The mutual evaluation report will be submitted to the APG annual meeting in 2016, it also reads.
The APG third-round mutual evaluation will bring more benefits for the country, hopes Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman M Bodiuzzaman.
He said: “As it is the third mutual evaluation for Bangladesh, so we are now trying to comply with the remaining conditions of FATF.”
The ACC told the delegation that it succeeded in bringing back the laundered Tk21 crore from Singapore and it hopes to bring back other laundered amount of money from overseas.
The commission also informed the delegation that it is working independently against money laundering in line with the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004 and Money Laundering Act 2012.
The team wanted to know the process of inquiry and investigation into the cases filed against money laundering from the commission during the three-hour meeting with the commission.
In 2002, Bangladesh had been identified as a non-compliant country by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund under the financial sector assessment programme as the country had just started anti-money laundering programme, according to the working paper.
International Co-operation Review Group of FATF identified Bangladesh as a risky country in 2010 when the cost of international trade increased as some multinational banks and financial institutions had been charging local businessmen more fees for international trade.
Bangladesh came out of the FATF grey list in February 2014, meaning there would be a great reduction in the cost and time of financial transactions with the rest of the world, which would benefit businessmen in the country.
FATF is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering while its affiliation, APG, is an inter-governmental organisation founded in 1997 in Bangkok, Thailand, comprised of 41 members including Bangladesh and a number of observers and international/regional observer organisations.