After five years, Bangladesh has been taken off the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list of countries which need to improve their enforcement of laws on money laundering activities.
The steps taken by the government to enact and improve monitoring of financial activities under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2009 and Anti-Terrorism Act 2009 have been duly recognised.
It is good news that the country’s regulatory framework for detection and apprehension of such illegal activities is now seen as compliant. Bangladesh is doing better than many countries of the world – with nine major countries, including Turkey and Indonesia still on the grey list – in taking positive steps against money laundering and terrorism financing.
As a result, our export volume is likely to rise as international trade costs will be lowered, because the level of charges made by foreign banks to facilitate transactions will fall.
It remains important to keep improving implementation of laws to help smooth the flow of business and monetary transactions. This calls for vigilance and objective reviews of anti-money laundering procedures at regular intervals. To this end, the financial intelligence unit set up at Bangladesh Bank and the national task force have a vital role to play.
We must not become complacent. The economy will be ill served if Bangladesh finds its way back on the grey list, should it fail to execute and implement important anti-money laundering laws in time.
