The Central Bank of Myanmar issued a statement stating that the written statements about banks in the report of the United Nations Human Rights Council harm the interests of the people of Myanmar as well as the relations between Myanmar and foreign countries. 

The UN Special Rapporteur’s report on 26 June 2024 accused international banks, state-owned banks, and some local private banks of being involved in some transactions that are going against human rights in Myanmar and called on the financial institutions to take action.

In response to the UN report, Myanmar would like to clarify that all local banks, including state-owned banks, fully adhere to customer due diligence procedures stipulated by the Central Bank of Myanmar. The international correspondent banks have also undertaken the Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) measures on all business relationships and transactions by scrutinizing the required documents when providing banking services to Myanmar banks.

On 9 June 2024, the Central Bank of Myanmar announced in a press release which highlighted that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Asia Pacific Joint Group (APJG) have recently recognized the progress in the implementation of the Action Plan and upgraded the ratings as a result of addressing the deficiency of action items in accordance with the quality of progress reports and the discussion of APJG face to face meetings.

The financial transactions are only for the importation of essential goods and basic necessities for Myanmar civilians, such as medicines and medical supplies, agricultural and livestock supplies, fertilizers, edible oil and fuels. Banks have constantly scrutinized the required documents and evidence in the case of facilitating payment transactions for importing the above-mentioned essential goods.

Against this backdrop, we expressed our strong objection to the UN Special Rapporteur’s report, which accused international banks, state-owned banks, and some local private banks of being involved in some transactions that are going against human rights in Myanmar and called on the financial institutions to take action. The UN report severely harms the interests of Myanmar civilians and the relationship between Myanmar and other countries.