Bangladesh Bank on Sunday asked financial organisations including brokerage houses to strictly follow anti-money laundering measures like submitting of suspected transaction reports to the BB. The central bank gave the direction at a regulators’ meeting at the BB headquarters in the capital. BB governor Atiur Rahman presided by the meeting. BB deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury, after the meeting, told reporters that the central bank had asked Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission to take awareness programmes so that the brokerage houses would send the STR to the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit of the central bank.
The BB requested the regulators to take measures so that the companies concerned of the financial regulators would send their cash transaction report along with the STR to the central bank, he said.
The reporting agencies including banks, non-bank financial institutions and brokerage houses have to inform the BFIU about all types of suspected and large volume transaction.
Six regulators organise the meeting every three months to exchange their opinion for ensuring the country’s financial stability. The regulators are Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority, Microcredit Regulatory Authority, Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms and Department of Cooperatives.
At the meeting, the IDRA raised question about a BSEC circular on appointment of the independent directors of the insurance companies, Sur said.
As per the BSEC rules, an insurance company must appoint at least one-fifth independent directors in the board.
But the IDRA opposed the provision saying that it was difficult for an insurance company to appoint five independent directors as it can appoint maximum 20 directors.
Sur said the regulators had made a decision that BSEC provision would be followed and requested the BSEC and the IDRA chairmen to resolve the dispute.
The regulators also made a decision to include the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission with the regulators’ forum from its next meeting as the BTRC is now supervising the mobile financial services, he said.
The BB requested the RJSC not to give approval to the companies which would use the finance or investment related words with their name as many of them cheated the clients by acting their activities like banks and NBFIs, he said.
The BB has earlier given direction in this regard to the RJSC to take no-objection certificate from the central bank if any one uses the words with its name, the BB deputy governor said.
The BB on Sunday requested the RJSC to cut the investment and finance related words from the companies at their own consideration, he said.
The BB recommended the regulators to attach with the internationally recognised Financial Stability Institute to gather experiences to stabilise the country’s financial sector, Sur said.
IDRA chairman M Shefaque Ahmed, BSEC commissioner Md Helal Uddin Nizami, Arif Khan and BB deputy governor Md Abul Quasem, among others, attended the meeting.
-With New Age input
