Money launderers will get no peace

Newly appointed Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur yesterday announced that he would initiate tough measures against money launderers with international support so that "they are unable to live in peace".

Meanwhile, Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed, in a separate programme, said names of several persons involved in financial crimes have come to light and steps have already been initiated against them.

Bank accounts of these people have been frozen, he told journalists after a meeting of a national coordination committee on anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing at the finance ministry.

"Those who have smuggled the country's money abroad will not be allowed to sleep peacefully…on pillows of money," Mansur told a media briefing on his first day in office.

We will keep them in trouble irrespective of whether the money can be brought back or not, says Ahsan H Mansur

"Even if it is not possible to recover the money from them, at least they will be kept on the run as per the law," he said.

"International law is now helpful to some extent. It must be used. We will keep them in trouble irrespective of whether the money can be brought back or not. Hopefully we can do it," he said.

Mansur, an economist who had worked at the International Monetary Fund for about three decades, replaced Abdur Rouf Talukder who resigned last week amid protests.

He spoke on governance failures in the banking sector, one of the beleaguered areas of the economy.

"The central bank has a moral responsibility for banking governance as it's the custodian of the sector," he said.

Responding to a question about the alleged involvement of Bangladesh Bank officials in irregularities, he said the central bank to some extent was also responsible for the current sorry state of the banking sector.

"We will have to find the officials responsible, who were behind the corruption, and legal steps will be taken based on specific allegations through thorough investigations," said Mansur.

"We must restore good governance within the banking system, otherwise the sector will no longer yield anything good," he said.

Mansur said he would try to bring transparency to the system and help the markets with data and qualitative information.

He also shared his key priorities for the next 100 days. These include reining in inflation, increasing money flow and initiating reforms and bringing about discipline in the banking sector.

Talking about inflation staying persistently high, the governor said the key priority of Bangladesh Bank would be to control inflation.

He said the high inflation and the foreign exchange reserve crisis were the two "headline challenges" for the economy.

"And Bangladesh Bank's central responsibility is to control inflation," he said.

"We have to try to bring down the inflation rate as well as increase the level of foreign exchange reserves," he said.

The twin crises will not go away fully within a year but the utmost effort will be initiated to "normalise the situation as soon as possible".

Apart from that, Mansur said there are some major challenges for the economy as the whole financial sector has already collaged. But there is no silver bullet to immediately overcome the situation, he added.

"Our economic problems are deep and cannot be solved overnight," Mansur said.