BD not in list of 90 countries receive depositors’ info

News Desk :
A total of 90 countries, including India, received information from Switzerland over the bank accounts of their citizens in various Swiss banks.
These countries received the data sought under the agreement of Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI).
As Bangladesh has no such agreement with Switzerland, they didn’t provide any data to the government over its citizens’ bank accounts.
Although the amount of deposit in Swiss banks by Bangladeshis is nascent every year, the government has no seriousness to know the identities of the ‘money launderers’.
Meanwhile, the officials of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) said the government, especially National Board of Revenue (NBR) and foreign ministry, will have to take initiative to sign an agreement. The other countries are getting the information in this way.
On Monday, Switzerland handed over nearly 3.4 million bank accounts information to India. According to different media, those Indians who deposited money in Swiss banks are living in 101 different countries. With this, India collected the details of bank accounts of their citizens from Switzerland for the fourth consecutive time.
In the previous year, a record high amount of money deposited by Bangladeshis over the past two decades in various Swiss banks. This money has been deposited in the names of different Bangladeshi individuals and companies.
At the end of 2021, the total amount of money deposited in the Swiss banks stood at 871.1 million Swiss francs (87 crore 11 lakh Swiss francs). Given the exchange rate of Tk 95 per Swiss franc, this amount stands at around Tk 82.76 billion (Tk 8,276 crore) in local currency.
In 2020 the total deposits of Bangladeshis in those banks had been 562.9 million Swiss francs (56 crore 29 lakh Swiss francs) or Tk 53.48 billion (Tk 5,348 crore). That means the amount of money kept by Bangladeshis in the Swiss banks has gone up by Tk 29.28 billion (Tk 2928 crore), that is, 55 per cent. This was revealed in the annual report of Switzerland’s central bank Swiss National Bank (SNB).  
Bangladesh Bank officials said along with import and export, money is laundered from Bangladesh through Hundi. Purchasing assets, including hotel and luxury apartments, in foreign countries have become a hobby for many — who siphon the money out of the country since there is no scope to make such investment after taking money through legal channel.
But BFIU chief Masud Biswas told the media that there is no barrier in getting information from the Swiss banks. “But, we don’t have any agreement with Switzerland like India,” he added.