Suspicious transactions, activities increase by 23% in FY24: BFIU

Bangladesh registered a surge in suspicious transactions — which deviate from usual transactions — in the fiscal year 2023-24, said the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) today.

The anti-money laundering agency said reports regarding suspicious transactions and suspicious activity from banks grew by 23 percent in FY24 to a total of 17,345.

Of that, the number of suspicious transaction reports was 11,736, and suspicious activity reports were 5,609.

The rise in such reports reflects growing awareness among officials of reporting institutions and increased efforts to curb money laundering and terrorist financing, said AFM Shahinul Islam, chief officer of the BFIU, at a views exchange meeting with journalists at the Bangladesh Bank headquarters in Dhaka.

The BFIU sent 114 financial intelligence reports to various investigative agencies in FY24. Its information exchange with law enforcement and regulatory bodies increased by 14 percent year on year in the fiscal year 2023-24.

Islam said the BFIU is working closely with local and international organisations, including the Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative — a partnership between the World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) — the US Department of Justice, and the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre (IACCC), to recover money laundered abroad.

A foreign legal firm is also being appointed to support the process, he said, adding that recovering illicit funds from overseas remains complex and time-consuming.