The number of suspicious transaction and activity reports related to money laundering surged by 74 per cent in Bangladesh in the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit.

The BFIU detected a rise in online gambling, foreign exchange and cryptocurrency trading, and digital hundi operations during the period.

The anti-money laundering agency disclosed the information on Wednesday while releasing its Annual Report 2024-25 at Bangladesh Bank headquarters in Dhaka.

The BFIU received 30,199 suspicious transaction reports and suspicious activity reports during FY25, up from 17,345 in the previous fiscal year and nearly six times the 5,280 such reports filed in FY21.

Of the total reports submitted in FY25, a total of 20,524 were STRs and 9,675 were SARs.

According to the report, the sharp increase reflects stricter regulatory supervision, stronger compliance requirements imposed on reporting entities, wider use of technology to monitor transactions and detect unusual patterns, and growing awareness among financial institutions about money laundering and terrorist financing risks.

It also attributed the increase to a rise in suspicious financial activities, particularly online gambling and betting, foreign exchange and cryptocurrency trading, and digital hundi, prompting closer regulatory scrutiny.

BFIU head Iqtiaruddin Md Mamun said reporting of suspicious transactions increased significantly as banks, which had previously been reluctant to report suspicious activities, were now submitting more reports without fear.

He said the authorities would take action against anyone involved in suspicious financial transactions regardless of political affiliations or identities.

Banks remained the dominant source of suspicious transaction reporting.

They accounted for 95 per cent of all reports submitted in FY25, up from 92 per cent in FY24 and 91 per cent in FY23.

The report noted that under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012, as amended in 2015, and the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009, banks and other reporting entities are legally required to promptly notify the BFIU whenever they detect suspicious transactions or activities.

During the year, the BFIU shared 199 financial intelligence reports with investigative agencies and responded to 1,314 requests for information from domestic authorities, including 657 requests from the Criminal Investigation Department and other police units, while the remaining requests came from the Anti-Corruption Commission, National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh Bank and other government agencies.

Cash transaction reports, which cover deposits or withdrawals of Tk 10 lakh or more in a single day through an account, declined to 19,454 in FY25 from 23,900 a year earlier.

Mamun also said that authorities had attached and frozen assets worth Tk 76,000 crore in Bangladesh and abroad in connection with 11 priority money laundering investigations involving former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, her family and 10 major business groups.

Of the total, assets worth Tk 57,000 crore were frozen in Bangladesh and Tk 19,000 crore overseas.

He said that efforts were continuing to recover assets allegedly moved abroad and expressed hope that there would be progress by the end of the year.

Responding to a question about whether investigations target only former governments, Mamun said that the BFIU did not consider political identities while conducting inquiries into suspicious transactions.

He said that investigations and account freezing were based solely on suspicious financial transactions and that the same standard would apply to members of the interim government if evidence of suspicious transactions emerged.