The Secretary-Treasurer of the Asian Bankers Association, Mr. Ernest Lin, accompanied by ABA’s officers paid a visit to the Chairman of the Association of Anti Money Laundering Compliance Officers of Banks in Bangladesh (AACOBB) Mr. Sarwar Chowdhury and other officers at the new headquarters of Eastern Bank in Dhaka, Bangladesh on November 28th 2019.

The courtesy call was an opportunity to establish a professional relationship between the two Associations, and discuss developments in KYC in Bangladesh, challenges in AML policy implementation, and exchange views about the economic conditions of the Bangladesh economy, which has been sustaining a GDP growth rate above 7% in the past few years. Moreover, according the World Bank, Bangladesh’s GDP is expected to remain high for the next couple of years.

Farhana Amin (Bank Alfalah), Rafiqul Islam (Shimanto Bank Ltd.), Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun (Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd.), M. Akhter Hossain (Shahjalal Islami Bank), Md. Shahjahan Ali (Eastern Bank Ltd.), Ananta Kumar Kha (Eastern Bank Ltd.), Chowdhury MAQ Sarwar (Eastern Bank Ltd.), Swapan Kumar Biswas (Mutual Trust Bank Ltd.), Prasanna Yadav (Fintelekt), Mr. Amador Honrado (ABA), and Mr. Ernest Lin (ABA) and Mr. Mig Moreno were among the participants.

Other issues discussed were new ID policies and technology advances that could help reduce the unbanked market in Bangladesh, which at this stage stands above 40%.

To conclude the visit, Mr. Ernest Lin cordially invited all members of AACOBB to join Fintelekt’s Second AML/CFT summit to be held in Taipei on May 28, 2020.

Fintelekt is ABA’s knowledge partner and the planned AML/CFT summit in Taipei on May 28 2019 will be an opportunity for ABA members and non-members to directly engage AML experts, government regulators and stakeholders involved in Anti-Money Laundering policymaking in Banking.