Myanmar state bank sets ultimatum for deposit reclaim from closed private bank

The state-run Myanmar Economic Bank(MEB) has set March 31, 2009 as a deadline date for the public to claim for the refund of deposits in the former Myanmar Universal Bank (MUB), one of the three major private banks closed by the government more than three years ago.
The unclaimed deposits will be confiscated as the state fund after the deadline date, an announcement of the MEB warned.

The MEB has taken over the administration of the MUB since Oct.1 this year, the statement said.

The MUB was sealed by the government in August 2005 and its owner, U Tin Sein, was charged under the country's Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law and the Control of Money Laundering law.

The MUB started operation in January 1995.

Meanwhile, two other private banks -- Myanmar Mayflower Bank (MMB) and Asia Wealth Bank (AWB) were also closed earlier in March 2005 for allegedly linking with narcotics and money laundering and the banks' administration was then handed over to the MEB under the Finance and Revenue Ministry.

The MMB and the AWB, established in 1994 and 1995 respectively, was first investigated by an eight-member government-formed investigation body in December 2003. Despite 15 months' probe into the matters, no firm evidence was found to prove the offense, according to earlier reports.

In June 2002, Myanmar promulgated a law to control money laundering, and financial institutions such as banks were set to report to the Central Control Board (CCB) their clients' fiscal activities and report any cashes exceeding 100 million kyats (100,000 U.S. dollars) and any other suspicious account activities.

Meanwhile, the state-run Myanmar Economic Bank has rejected to offer bank services to deposits suspected as money laundering.

Private banks were nationalized in Myanmar in 1963 during the previous government but after the country started to adopt the market-oriented economic system in late 1988, private banks were allowed to operate again since 1992, and since then there had been20 such banks across Myanmar with a total of 350 branches.

With the take-over of the three banks by the government and the merger of three other cooperative banks to become a public-listed bank in recent years, there remained 15 of such banks in operation so far.