Bangladesh Bank has instructed all cooperative firms to put in place policies and procedures to prevent and detect money laundering.

Instructions include systems and controls to identify, assess and monitor money-laundering risks as well as customer due diligence measures.

Cooperative firms have to ensure that their systems and controls enable them to identify suspicious transactions, according to a notice issued by the central bank's Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit yesterday.

The guidelines also asked the firms to allocate overall responsibility for anti-money laundering efforts. They must also appoint a chief anti-money laundering compliance officer and set a contact point for the firm's anti-money laundering activity.

There must be a policy regarding members, shareholders and subscribers of a cooperative firm, said the circular.

Earlier, the BB issued similar guidelines for banks, non-bank financial institutions, insurance companies and microcredit organisations in an effort to prevent money laundering in Bangladesh.