Checking Money Laundering
BB, customs start exchanging export-import data online
Bangladesh Bank and customs department have started to exchange export- and import-related data through an online system to check money laundering and financial anomalies, officials of the central bank said. They said that the two entities had started to exchange the data from early this month in a bid to ensure transparency in the financial sector. A BB official told New Age on Thursday that due to an absence of data exchange through online between the two organisations, some fake exporters and importers submitted forged bank papers to the customs to launder money abroad.
He said that the fake businesspeople usually submitted forged export forms to the customs.
But, the BB and the scheduled banks could not examine the process as the customs sent the papers through manual system instead of online system.
The BB and the customs department earlier agreed to complete all procedures to exchange such data by November 30, 2013, but they had failed to do so due to technical problem.
The two organisations are now exchanging the data through email in the first phase.
In the second phase, they will convert the process into an automated system when the customs and the BB will connected their respective servers with the optical fibre cable.
The BB will exhibit the customs’ data in its electronic Dashboard when the two organisations will exchange the data under the automated system.
The BB will allow the customs to observe its (central bank’s) Dashboard, he said.
The BB official said that the BB had taken the initiative to exchange the data with the customs department in 2007 and the two organisations started work in this regard since the beginning of 2013.
Under the latest system, the scheduled banks have to submit export forms to the central bank after which the BB will send the data to the customs, he said.
The customs will finalise the export form after receiving the data from the central bank, he said.
Likewise, the banks will submit the data about the opening of letters of credit to the BB and the central bank will place the data to the customs, he said.
The customs will also send the bills of entry of the import to the central bank, he said.
He said that the central bank had already detected some anomalies perpetrated by some banks by taking technical cooperation from the customs department’s data.
The BB is now monitoring the foreign exchange-related business of the scheduled banks through the Dashboard, but it could not
monitor closely the business due to lack of available data of customs department.
The BB official, however, said that the existing Dashboard’s information would also help the two
organisations to scrutinise the export- and the import- related data of the companies.
-With New Age input
