Every year a huge amount of money is siphoned out of the country primarily in four forms - over and under invoicing, over and under shipment, multiple invoices, and falsely declared goods and services, according to a study report of Bangladesh Institution of Bank Management (BIBM).
BIBM Research Director Shah Md Ahsan Habib launched the report “Review of the Trade Services Operations of Banks-2016” at a workshop in the BIBM auditorium in Dhaka on Sunday.
Among others, Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, a supernumerary professor at the BIBM, spoke at the event with BIBM Director General Dr Toufic Ahmad Choudhury in the chair.
Habib said: “Among various forms of trade related frauds, trade-based money laundering is perhaps the most concerning issue to policy makers all over the world, and four basic techniques are followed by fraudsters in Bangladesh for money laundering.
“The new online reporting system of Bangladesh Bank has turned out to be a great achievement in the banking sector, which greatly helps the monitoring and supervising of day-to-day trade transactions. Also, this is a vital tool for data validation.”
In spite of these improvements and achievements, cases of non-reporting and misreporting are still concerning, Habib added.
In January 2013, the central bank launched the online reporting system for all inward and outward remittances of authorised dealer (AD) banks. The AD banks report their transactions online, helping Bangladesh Bank, the head offices of other banks, Export Promotion Bureau, National Board of Revenue and the ministries concerned establish a greater coordination among them.
Addressing the event as chief guest, Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury said regulatory supervision and reporting had now become crucial due to such concerning issues as money laundering, compliance requirements and assorted financial crimes.
He said: “Bangladesh Bank has brought enormous changes to the reporting system so it can easily detect possible anomalies and instruct the banks to immediately rectify them. Yet, the ADs are still facing problems including network disruptions, frequent power outages at branches of the banks, etc.”
Lack of operational knowledge of persons involved in the reporting is also a problem, Chowdhury added.
The BIBM report also shows that state-run banks are losing out their influence on banking services in foreign trade. Import transactions through these banks came down to 7% in 2016 from 27% in 2011, while transactions through commercial banks rose from 64% in 2011 to 85% in 2016.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Sunday said the government was planning to reform some of its laws and regulations to curb money laundering.
“Money being siphoned off has increased recently due to some existing laws and regulations. We are going to reform them to stop this trend,” he said at the signing ceremony of Annual Performance Agreement between his ministry and 16 state-run banks and financial institutions in the ministry auditorium.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
