Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a unitary republic in South Asia: Article 1 of its Constitution describes it as a unitary, independent, sovereign Republic and Article 94 establishes a Supreme Court. The World Bank classifies it as lower middle income and puts its population at about 175.7 million in 2025, and the IMF reports nominal GDP of about 55,029 billion taka for the fiscal year to June 2025. The IMF describes an export base dominated by ready-made garments, at 85% of total exports, and expects remittances to stay at around 6% of GDP. Germany Trade & Invest describes the legal system as rooted in English common law, with parliamentary Acts as the main source. Muslim personal law (Shariat) applies to Muslims in family and succession matters under the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1937.

The IMF's 2025 Article IV report (January 2026) records real GDP growth of 3.7% in FY25, average inflation of 10.0% and gross reserves of about US$26.7 billion. It reports system-wide non-performing loans of 34% at end-June 2025 and traces the stress in banking to unsuitable ownership, excessive related-party lending and weak supervision. The APG mutual evaluation adopted in 2016 described corruption-related laundering as the biggest unmitigated money laundering risk. The 2015 national risk assessment it cites rated corruption, fraud, forgery, human trafficking and smuggling as high threats and named banks, finance companies, real estate and jewellers among the highest-risk sectors. The IMF expects the fourth APG mutual evaluation in 2027.

Bangladesh Bank, the central bank set up under the Bangladesh Bank Order 1972, lists among its functions supervising banks, non-bank financial institutions and the payment system; it administers the Bank Company Act 1991 and the Payment and Settlement System Act 2024. The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), housed within Bangladesh Bank, supervises reporting organisations under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012 and the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009. The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) regulates capital markets, the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) regulates insurance, and the Microcredit Regulatory Authority covers NGO microfinance. The Anti-Corruption Commission works under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004. Personal data is governed by the Personal Data Protection Act 2026, which names as its authority the National Data Management Authority under the National Data Management Act 2026; whether that Authority is operating was not confirmed. The Cyber Security Act 2026 provides for a National Cyber Security Agency.

BFIU guidance describes section 20A of the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009 as the basis for implementing UN Security Council resolutions 1267, 1373 and the weapons-of-mass-destruction resolutions, with assets frozen without delay and without prior notice. It says the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues a statutory regulatory order under the United Nations (Security Council) Act 1948 and BFIU directs reporting organisations. It expects reporting organisations to screen customers and cross-border payments, including SWIFT messages, against terrorist and sanctions lists, to stop a matching transaction and to report it to BFIU within the next working day. The sources reviewed describe no autonomous national or regional sanctions regime, so firms there meet sanctions exposure through these screening duties.