Bangladesh ranks 47th in financial secrecy index

Bangladesh has been ranked the world’s 47th largest enabler of financial secrecy this year, up from 50th last year, reflecting that the country’s authorities have become more complicit in helping people hide their finances from the rule of law.

The Tax Justice Network (TJN) published the ranking in its Financial Secrecy Index (FSI) on June 23.

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According to the index, the United States is the world’s biggest enabler of financial secrecy, followed by Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates.

India, the largest economy in South Asia, ranked 25th this year, improving by one place from last year. Financial secrecy has increased in Sri Lanka, while Pakistan’s ranking has improved.

TJN prepares the FSI by assessing more than 100 questions across 20 indicators. Using a scale of 0 to 100, it measures how much room a country’s laws and regulations leave for financial secrecy, whether intentionally or not.

The organisation has published the FSI since 2009, using assessments of financial transparency and international cooperation. It measures how much scope a country’s laws and regulations provide for financial secrecy. This is known as the country’s “secrecy score”.

The index also measures how much financial services a country provides to non-residents. This is called the country’s “global scale weight”.

These two measures are combined to calculate a country’s “FSI value”, which determines its ranking in the index.

A high secrecy score means a country’s laws allow greater financial secrecy, while a low score means its laws leave little room for financial secrecy.

Bangladesh’s FSI value stands at 208 in 2026. According to TJN, the country has high levels of financial secrecy in areas such as the beneficial ownership of trusts and companies, transparency of limited liability partnerships, company accounts, foreign investment income, tax compliance and real estate ownership.

However, Bangladesh performs better in areas such as anti-money laundering rules, public statistics, tax rulings and transparency in extractive industry contracts.

This year, TJN also introduced the Real Estate Secrecy Index, which found that the United States is the world’s leading destination for laundering illicit money through real estate.

According to TJN, weak or non-existent transparency laws gave the United States the worst possible score on the index’s real estate ownership indicator. Fellow World Cup co-hosts Canada and Mexico ranked second and fifth, respectively, among the top destinations for laundering dirty money through real estate.

The United Kingdom ranked eighth as it prepares to host a global summit on tackling illicit finance later this year, where transparency in real estate ownership is expected to be a key focus, TJN said.