TERRORIST FINANCE: BANGLADESH ADDRESSES ILLEGAL

UNCLAS DHAKA 000381 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EB/ESC/TFS (KATHERINE LEAHY) EB/ESC/TFS (LEANNE CANNON) S/CT (PATTY HILL) S/CT FINANCE (GALER AND NOVIS) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EFIN ETTC KTFN PREL PTER LE BG SUBJECT: TERRORIST FINANCE: BANGLADESH ADDRESSES ILLEGAL CASH COURIERS ISSUE REF: STATE 16120 ¶1. (SBU) Econoff delivered points reftel to Mr. Swapan Bishwas, Deputy General Manager, Anti-money Laundering Department of the Bangladesh Bank (the country's central bank). Mr. Biswaw affirmed Bangladesh's commitment to preventing the illegal movement of currency. He cited the following as evidence of the government's commitment: -- Bangladesh has ratified the UN International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. -- Bangladesh implements FATF Special Recommendation IX through its foreign currency control regulations. -- Bangladesh law requires travelers to Bangladesh to declare currency valued in excess of US $5,000. Undeclared currency is subject to forfeiture. Travelers departing Bangladesh must declare currency valued in excess of US $3,000 (if traveling to a South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation member country) or US $5,000 (all other destinations.) Customs and immigration authorities also monitor currency imports and exports. Recent arrests for currency smuggling out of Bangladesh were widely reported in the media. -- Dealers in foreign currency must be licensed in Bangladesh. Informal hundi or hawala arrangements are unlicensed and therefore illegal. -- Bangladesh has adopted a law against money-laundering. This law is currently under revision to strengthen its provisions and establish the legal basis for a formal financial intelligence unit. Provisions against terrorism financing will be incorporated into the anti-money laundering law amendments or into a separate terrorism law. -- Bangladesh Bank has implemented requirements for cash transaction reports and suspicious transaction reports. The central bank has conducted extensive outreach to banks to build technical capacity for detecting and preventing money laundering. Bank supervisors review banks' anti-money laundering compliance programs as part of their core-risk analysis. ¶2. (SBU) The U.S. government provides extensive technical assistance to the government of Bangladesh to improve its anti-money laundering capabilities. Post's Resident Legal Advisor works closely with the Bangladesh Bank and officials from the Law, Home Affairs, and Finance ministries, as well as police, customs and judicial officials to improve legal provisions governing anti-money laundering and terrorist financing, to develop an environment of interagency cooperation, and to create and train a financial intelligence unit equipped with the legal and accounting expertise needed to detect, investigate and prosecute financial crimes. PASI