Thai banks are the top suppliers of financial services to Myanmar’s military, UN expert says

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thai banks have become the main supplier of international financial services for Myanmar’s military government, enabling it to purchase goods and equipment to carry out its increasingly bloody war against pro-democracy resistance forces and armed ethnic minority groups, a U.N. expert said in a report issued Wednesday. It says the junta, formally known as the State Administration Council, “continues to engage with a broad international banking network to sustain itself and its weapons supplies.” “Over the past year, 16 banks located in seven countries processed transactions related to SAC military procurement; 25 banks have provided correspondent banking services to Myanmar’s state-owned banks since the coup,” says the report, titled "Banking on the Death Trade: How Banks and Governments Enable the military Junta in Myanmar,” presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council. “The Myanmar military’s annual procurement of weapons and military supplies through the formal banking system declined by a third from the year ending March 2023 to the year that followed — from $377 million to $253 million.” “The bad news is that the junta is circumventing sanctions and other measures by exploiting gaps in sanctions regimes, shifting financial institutions, and taking advantage of the failure of Member States to fully coordinate and enforce actions.” A previous report from Andrews documented that Singapore-based entities had become the military junta’s third-largest source of weapons materials, despite a clear national policy opposing the transfer of weapons to Myanmar. It says that while Singapore-based banks facilitated over 70% of the military junta’s purchases that passed through the formal banking system in the 2022 financial year, “that percentage had dropped to under 20% by FY2023.” Exports from Thailand-registered entities "more than doubled — from just over $60 million to nearly $130 million” from FY2022 to FY2023, the report adds.