The central bank has simplified formalities for the opening non-resident investor’s taka accounts (NITAs).
In Bangladesh, the Guidelines for Foreign Exchange Transactions-2018 dictate the procedural modalities of NITAs.
In addition, the central bank, in 2021, published the account-opening form while the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit earlier provided the guidance for the prevention of money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing, including know your customer procedure and account-opening by non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs).
Commercial banks are using different sets of documents for opening NITAs that may create ambiguity among the applicants, said the BB in a notice yesterday.
In order to bring uniformity in the opening of NITAs, banks have been advised to obtain the applicant’s valid passport copy, photograph, proof of address, reliable source of income, and the copy of the nominee or authorised person’s passport or national identification card, and the photograph.
Banks have been directed to fix and distribute a unified set of documents to their branches at home and abroad to facilitate the opening of NITAs.
The NITA is a facility that is extended to non-resident individuals, institutions or NRBs who are interested in trading Bangladeshi securities against foreign exchanges remitted from abroad.
