Home ›› 31 May 2023 ›› Front
The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) on Tuesday asked non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) to strengthen monitoring of the accounts of influential individuals, politically exposed persons and high-risk clients to prevent potential money laundering and terror financing.
The anti-money laundering agency also asked the NBFIs to gather comprehensive information about the source of funds and the purpose behind opening an account and conducting financial transactions.
The BFIU notice said that influential people mean individuals who are or have been entrusted with prominent public functions, for example, heads of the state or the government, senior politicians, senior government, judicial or military officials, senior executives of state-owned corporations and important political party leaders.
Regarding high-risk customers and influential and political persons, it said that additional relevant information should be collected from unbiased and reliable sources to establish customer identification.
BFIU also said that regular monitoring of their financial transactions should be conducted more diligently.
To ensure that accounts are not vulnerable to money laundering or terrorist financing activities, it is necessary to gather accurate and comprehensive information about clients, it said.
Each financial institution must carry out a verification process to establish a clear understanding of the purpose of the opening of an account and verify the customer’s identity and related information.
BFIU also asked the NBFIs to identify the true beneficiary of each account.
If a customer manages an account on behalf of another individual, in that case, apart from the customer, accurate and complete information about the individual concerned should be collected and stored too, it said in the notice.
In the case of someone directly or indirectly controlling/influencing a customer, accurate and complete information about that individual should be collected and stored as well, it added.
