Myanmar state bank rejects deposits suspected as money laundering

The state-run Myanmar Economic Bank (MEB) has rejected to offer bank services to deposits suspected as money laundering, the local Voice journal reported Monday, quoting the bank sources.

Previously, some MEB made no investigation on sources of money with which depositors opened their accounts, the report said.

In June 2002, Myanmar promulgated a law to control money laundering and financial institutions such as banks were set to report to the Central Control Board (CCB) their clients' fiscal activities and report any cashes exceeding 100 million kyats (100, 000 US dollars) and any other suspicious account activities.

In 2005, the Myanmar authorities closed three local private banks -- the Myanmar Mayflower Bank, the Asia Wealth Bank and the Universal Bank for allegedly linking with money laundering and the banks' operation has been taken over by the State Economic Bank.

Meanwhile, The CCB of Myanmar and the Anti-Money Laundering Office of Thailand reached a MoU on such cooperation in July 2005, which covers exchanging information on financial intelligence relating to money laundering.

Another MoU with Indonesia on the same purpose is also being expected to be initiated soon, local reports said, adding that once the document is formally signed, Indonesia will become another member country of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with which Myanmar cooperates in combating money laundering after Thailand.

As one of the international assistance in suppressing money laundering, Australia is funding Myanmar a 15-month project of developing guidelines for financial investigators of the country since October 2005, which has been under implementation by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center, according to the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Myanmar Home Ministry.

The project covers a series of workshops to train Myanmar officials in terms of technique for investigating money laundering, courses on online banking, electronic reporting, data analyzing systems and combating financial terrorism.

As part of its increased international cooperation in the aspects, Myanmar joined in signing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime in April 2004.

Private banks were nationalized in Myanmar in 1963 during the previous government but after the country started to adopt the market-oriented economic system in late 1988, private banks were allowed to operate again since 1992 and since then there had been 20 such banks across Myanmar with a total of 350 branches.

With the take-over of the three banks by the government and the merger of three other cooperative banks to become a public-listed bank in recent years, there remained 15 of such banks in operation as of the end of 2005.

Source: Xinhua

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