Incidences of Trade-Based Money Laundering (TBML) has become a growing concern for policymakers and central banks throughout the world, according to speakers at a seminar on Wednesday.
They said, although the available sets of Anti Money Laundering (AML) rules are in line with globally accepted standards, there is still a lot of scope to improve enforcement.
The remarks came up at the closing ceremony of ICC Workshop on Trade Finance and Best Practices in Demand Guarantees, organized by ICC Bangladesh at a city hotel. ICC Bangladesh President Mahbubur Rahman, ICC Bangladesh Banking Commission Chairman & CEO of Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre (BIAC), Muhammad A (Rumee) Ali and Dr. Andrea Hauptmann, Senior Global Consultant on Trade Finance, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Austria, and ICCB Secretary General Ataur Rahman spoke on the occasion.
"Bangladesh has become one of Asia’s most remarkable success stories in the recent past. Bangladesh is an important market for trade finance within Asia & the Pacific. To remain competitive in today’s changing environment, both clients and financial institutions have to streamline their trade activities," said Mahbubur Rahman while addressing.
He said that the international trade volume of Bangladesh was $21 billion in 2005 and the amount went up to more than $95 billion in 2018. Rahman cautioned that with the growing business complexities, technological changes, market expectations and financial crimes, trade services are becoming increasingly challenging for banks and financial institutions of our country, similar to those of the other trading nations.
"Time has come to identify the exposure of banks on international bank guarantees, and it seems crucial now to formulate guideline/sets of rules for such guarantees and adopt international rules associated with bank guarantees and standby LCs," he mentioned.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) is working on the TBML guideline which is expected to bring positive changes regarding better enforcement of the AML rules, he hoped.
Muhammad A. (Rumee) Ali in his address pointed out four major risks in trade finance for the coming days: these are Cyber Security, Illicit Flow, Fintech, and contagious risk. He urged the participants to be cautious regarding these risks.
Workshop Resource Person Dr. Andrea Hauptmann, and Ataur Rahman also spoke on the occasion.
