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TERROR FINANCING ALLEGATION

Islami Bank vows to battle it out

Star Business Report
Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd will file a formal complaint against the US senate report that links the bank to terrorist financing and money laundering, top officials said yesterday.
"We will make formal objections. We will look into every possible way," said Mohammad Abdul Mannan, managing director of Islami Bank.
"We will explore every legal channel to clear our name,” reiterated Prof Abu Nasser Muhammad Abduz Zaher, the bank's chairman.
“Islami Bank was not mindfully involved in any wrongdoing. We are not afraid of any audit as we
are certain we have not made any mistake."
They spoke at a press conference at the head office of the bank in Motijheel.
Islami Bank, along Social Islami Bank Ltd, was accused of having links with terrorist organisations, in a US senate report on HSBC’s money laundering lapses.
At the press conference, Mannan said his bank was fined, along with other banks, by Bangladesh Bank only once in 2006 for failure to timely report suspected transactions.
But the US senate report states it was three times, and when probed further by journalists, he acknowledged.
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On 2004 and 2006, the fines were for not reporting to Bangladesh Bank on time of suspected transactions.
While it was for late submission of regular report to the Department of the Offsite Supervision, that brought about the fine in 2005.
"We did not finance any body or organisation |for terrorist activities!. Islami Bank Bangladesh was used to transfer money from one branch to another," he said.
The managing director said the bank might have committed unintentional errors as it handles large volumes of accounts.
"We are all human beings. We have 267 branches and deal with 67 lakh accounts. But you will not find any evidence where we were intentionally involved with wrongdoing."
Whenever Bangladesh Bank enquired Islami Bank of suspected accounts, the bank followed through by closing them, Mannan added.
“We were not even aware of Islami Bank’s 'high-risk' designation in HSBC's client classifications before the US senate report. It is only because of Bangladesh's vulnerability to money laundering exercises that we were put in the 'high-risk' category.”
However, the US Senate report specifies that it was due to Islami Bank's one-third shares being owned by the Al Rajhi group with links to terror financing, and the three instances of fines by Bangladesh Bank.
"Al Rajhi Bank is not a shareholder of the bank. It was never a shareholder and sponsor of the bank," Mannan asserted.
On Islami Bank's relation with Al Rajhi Bank, he said: "All major banks, both public and private, in Bangladesh bring remittance to the country7 through Al Rajhi Bank."
He categorically refuted claims made by the US report that JMB chief Abdur Rahman and his second-in-command Siddiqui Islam alias Bangla Bhai had accounts with the bank.
Islami Bank has accounts with HSBC in India, Pakistan and the USA, along with correspondent relationships with the British bank in 24 places around the world.
Zaher said the bank has spent crores of taka so that expatriate Bangladeshi nationals could send money home through proper banking channels.
"We have continued it for the sake of the country."
Mannan said the news published in the media over the last few days concerning the bank was misleading and unsubstantiated.
"The Senate report did not accuse Islami Bank of involvement in terrorist financing or illegal transaction. Besides, it did not identify any of the bank's transactions with correspondent banks, including those with HSBC, as suspicious," he said.
Supplementing it, he said sometimes the US senate probe report was reliant on quotes of various media outlets and not hard facts.
“Islami Bank Bangladesh was never involved with things written in the past couple of days, and wall not be in future,” Mannan said.
He pledged full co-operation should the Bangladesh Bank launch an investigation into the allegations.