April 25, 2018
Trade-based money laundering is a growing concern for the banking industry amid rapid expansion of foreign trade, according to a recent survey by the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management. Bangladesh’s external trade stood at about $80 billion in 2016-17 and it has been growing thanks to the steady economic growth over the past decade, it said.
Among the trade-based money laundering techniques, over- and under-invoicing of goods and services and misdeclaration of goods are commonly used in Bangladesh, the survey on trade services operations of banks found. Money laundering is facilitated by collusion between importers and exporters and bank officials are sometimes forced to get involved in the illegal transactions, it said. A lack of proper price assessment is responsible for money laundering through foreign trade activities, said Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, supernumerary professor of BIBM.