BB to seek info about Bangladeshi clients of Swiss banks again

Though the Swiss National Bank never answered to any of previous requests for information about Bangladeshi account holders in Switzerland banks, Bangladesh Bank is going to make yet another such call as a new report suggests rise in Bangladeshi deposits. “A letter has already been prepared in consultation with the government high-up and it will be sent to Swiss authorities tomorrow (Tuesday),” said an official of Bangladesh Bank. He said the Bangladesh Bank hopes the Swiss National Bank will respond to the letter with a list of the account holders who “allegedly laundered funds from Bangladesh.” The SNB published a series of annual reports on June 29 revealing that the deposits by Bangladeshi citizens in Swiss banks have surged significantly. The report for the year 2016 disclosed that there has been a 19% increase in Bangladeshi deposits since 2015. The total deposits by the Bangladeshi citizens in various Swiss banks totalled Tk5,566 crore in 2016, and Tk4,417 crore in 2015. It was also revealed that despite the overall reduction in foreign currency deposits in Swiss banks over the last few years, deposits by the Bangladeshis have been increasing steadily. Experts suggest that the money is usually laundered before the national polls and Bangladesh’s next general election is due in January, 2019. Switzerland has been famous for secret bank deposits by wealthy people for a long time. While depositing the money, the name and address of the depositor was kept confidential and the money was kept on the basis of a code number. But since 2002 the Money Laundering Prevention Act has been widely implemented to prevent money laundering worldwide. As a result, they have been publishing information on deposits from different countries since. Among the letters sent by Bangladesh Bank to SNB, one sought the possibility to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the SNB. It has not received any response yet. Bangladesh’s central bank also sent two letters to SNB seeking wealth information about controversial Bangladeshi businessman Moosa Bin Shamsher and his family. SNB didn’t respond. It is alleged that a large amount of money was laundered from different branches of multinational bank HSBC to SNB from Bangladesh. SNB signed agreements with 22 countries including India and Pakistan during the last several years. Bangladesh has secured 89th place in terms of money parceled by its citizens with Swiss banks, while the United Kingdom remains on the top. The United State is placed second position as per an analysis of the latest figures compiled by SNB report. Bangladesh was placed at the 89th among 282 countries while India placed 88th.