Bangladesh Bank has formed a research cell to look into the effectiveness of the country's anti-money laundering mechanisms and ways to recover illicit funds, bdnews24.com reports.
The nine-strong cell will work under the auspices of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), the anti-money laundering watchdog.
Abdur Rouf Talukder, governor of the central bank, greenlighted the cell's operation on Dec 5 with special instructions.
“Research was already being conducted by a certain department. Now, a dedicated cell will do research on preventing money laundering. They will review the experience that countries around the world have had in their efforts to bring back laundered money," said Masud Biswas, head of the BFIU.
The research cell will be headed by an additional director, according to the central bank.
Although the BFIU is responsible for preventing money laundering, the organisation does not disclose the official data on the amount of money siphoned abroad every year. Instead, the media have to rely on data disseminated by foreign outlets and organisations to gauge the extent of the illegal activity.
A steep rise in import bills triggered by the prolonged war in Ukraine has strained the country's foreign exchange reserves.
Noting that most of the money was being laundered under the guise of foreign trade, BFIU chief Masud said import costs had jumped 20-200 percent when the annual report for the 2020-21 fiscal year was published in October.
Governor Talukder also flagged the discrepancies in the prices of goods found while analysing the data on letters of credit for imports and exports completed before July. While some traders provided inflated figures for imports, others did the opposite.
The rest of the money was funnelled through hundis, an illegal channel for making cross-border transactions, according to Talukder.