Suspicious Transactions Reports (STRs) have increased by 64.57 per cent in the fiscal year 2022-23, compared to the FY22 in the country.
This information has been revealed in the annual report of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) for FY23. The BFIU was established as a wing of the Bangladesh Bank in 2002 to protect money laundering and terror financing.
BFIU Chief Masud Biswas presented the report in a press conference in the conference hall of central bank on Tuesday.
He said in the FY23, there were 14,106 suspicious transactions reports. The STRs increased by 64.57 per cent or 5,535 in one year. In the previous fiscal year 2021-22, this number was 8,571 and in the fiscal year 2020-21, it was 5,280.
The BFIU chief said, “All the STRs are not true, after identifying any such transactions, the BFIU investigated the issue. Whenever they received evidence of any crime, action was taken against them.
“Eighty per cent of money laundering is happening through the banking system. If banks do not cooperate to stop such transactions, it is not easy to curb money laundering. Because once money is laundered, it cannot be brought back.”
Biswas added that the BFIU is working to sign MoUs with ten countries to bring back the smuggled money and cooperate to stop it.
In response to a question, the head of the BFIU said 59 cases of money laundering have been registered based on the information of the BFIU. Among them, the ACC has filed 47 cases, CID 10, and NBR’s special cell 2. These are not settled yet.
According to the BFIU report, banks have submitted a maximum of 12,809 suspicious transaction reports in the entire fiscal year of 2022-23. The banks submitted 7,999 reports in the previous fiscal year.
Financial institutions submitted 121 reports, and the money exchange houses submitted 900 reports.
BFIU Executive Director Rafiqul Islam, Director of Foreign Exchange and Policy Department of Bangladesh Bank Sarwar Hossain, and Additional Director Kamal Hossain were present at the press conference.
