Bangladesh may enter list of APG on money laundering gray risky nations again

The Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), the global body that ranks countries, however, acknowledges that Bangladesh has formulated laws in this regard but there are problems with their implementation “The recent incident of BB reserve heist and terror attacks including Holey Artisan attack in Dhaka will be taken into consideration during the next APG money laundering evaluation,” said Abu Hena Mohd Razee Hassan, deputy governor of central bank, while addressing a press conference at Bangladesh Bank headquarters in the city yesterday. Bangladesh was kept outside the grey list In February 2014. The country was put on the list in 2008 for failing to respond positively in checking money laundering and terror financing. He said: “As the Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) which rated Bangladesh as good was prepared in October 2015, the recent incidents did not hit the ratings.” The central bank organised the press conference to disclose that Bangladesh was rated as compliant with international Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards by APG.  Hassan came up with the announcement while the country is going through a hyper tension situation because of the growing terror attacks and largest-ever BB cyber heist. The APG annual general meeting was scheduled to be held in Dhaka in July but it was postponed soon after Gulshan terror attack. The incident was discussed in the APG meeting which later held in United States and Bangladesh was appreciated for smooth handling of the situation, he added. He, however, hoped that Bangladesh will overcome the recent crisis by this time as the next evaluation will be held at least seven or eight years later on. “There was apprehension in the market that Bangladesh could be listed in the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) in MER due to the recent growing militant attacks but now the country is out of that risk,” he added. Hassan also noted that Bangladesh government’s role to withstand money-laundering and terror financing activities was discussed and appreciated by APG member countries at the meeting. Bangladesh’s position was improved in two ratings by the APG assessment team. The meeting did not consider a proposal of downgrading Bangladesh in four ratings by APG member countries.