Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The central bank of Bangladesh has asked the non- banking financial institutions (NBFIs) to submit cash transaction report (CTR) to its Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) from June 1 this year, officials said.
Under the new provision, the NBFIs have to report all single transactions worth BDT 1.0 million and above in form of withdrawal or deposit through the commercial banks.
The NBFIs are not allowed for day-to-day transactions. They only collect term deposits from the clients.
The NBFIs will have to submit CTR on both withdrawal and deposit using 'goAML' software to the BFIU of BB within the third week of the next month, according to a central bank circular, issued on Tuesday.
The first report on CTR will be submitted by the NBFIs to BFIU by July 21 as per the latest directive, a BB senior official explained.
He also said they will have to preserve the report on CTR for at least five years from the date of submission to BFIU.
"We'll also preserve the information in a database of BFIU for cross-checking the mode of fund transfer, if necessary," he added.
The NBFIs will not be required to submit the CTR report if any government, semi-government and autonomous body deposit money with their accounts, but they have to place the CTR if the organisations withdraw cash from the accounts, the circular added.
The central bank also asked the NBFIs not to consider suspicious transaction report, or STR, as the CTR. The NBFIs, however, have to verify the CTR properly to detect the suspicious transaction under the cash transaction.
The central bank last year introduced the online system through installing 'goAML' software for collecting both suspicious transaction report (STR) and CTR from the commercial banks and the financial institutions.
The software is a standard one of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), available for financial intelligence units to check terror financing and money laundering.
Currently, the banks have to submit CTR, if an amount of Tk 1.0 million or above is deposited or withdrawn in cash from a particular account.
The central bank is empowered to penalise the banks and NBFIs fines ranging between BDT 50,000 and BDT 2.5 million, instead of the previous range between BDT 10,000 and BDT 0.5 million, for their failure in submitting reports related to money laundering, according to the provision of the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012.