Written by The Banking Post
Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Monday instructed commercial banks having issues of laundered assets to sign non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with internationally renowned legal firms to bring back stolen assets of the lenders.
The central bank governor Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur in a meeting with top executives of 35 commercial banks issued the verbal instruction to accelerate the process of stolen assets recovery further at the BB headquarters on the day.
Chief of the banking regulator shared names of eight global litigation and stolen assets recovery firms which have enough expertise in the respected areas in the meeting.
According to the meeting sources, the banking regulator suggested them to initially start investigation of the money laundering involving 11 major parties, including family members of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with the help of the global law firms.
Seeking anonymity, managing director of a private commercial bank said the BB governor suggested for inking NDA with eight international law firms to bring back laundered bank assets.
He said the regulator instructed them to initially launch the stolen money recovery process against 11 major parties like S Alam Group, NASA, Beximcom, Orion, Nabil and Sikder group.
Islami Bank Bangladesh Managing Director and CEO Omar Faruk Khan said the banks will engage international law and asset recovery firms to trace and repatriate the funds.
He said that the CID has initially identified 11 local industrial groups suspected of money laundering, including Bashundhara, Nasa, and S Alam.
“We will work with the asset recovery agencies under NDA. Some preliminary negotiations have begun,” he added.
BB spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan said bringing back distressed assets from outside have become a difficult task but there are some international firms having success stories in terms of recovering such assets.
“We share some of their names with the bank executives today. If they (banks) find some other firms having success stories, the banks can chose them,” he said.
On condition of not disclosing identities, a BB official who was present at the meeting said some business groups laundered assets from several banks. In that case, the regulator asked the banks to form a consortium and engaged one bank as lead bank to lead the process.
He said they have already formed a stolen asset recovery wing under the BFIU (Bangladesh Financial Intelligent Unit) to oversee the process and support the banks if necessary.
The BB official also informed that the central bank considers issuing a circular regarding the matter in the coming days.
