Asset Recovery and Enforcement

International Centre for Asset Recovery

Recovering illicit assets and strengthening enforcement against corruption are essential for countries to deliver on public priorities – from education and health to infrastructure and climate action.

The International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) is the cornerstone of the Basel Institute’s work to trace and recover assets linked to corruption, money laundering and other financial crimes.

A specialised centre of the Basel Institute since 2006, ICAR works globally to strengthen asset recovery capacity, practice and policy. The team currently supports more than 40 law enforcement, prosecution, and judicial authorities in 20 countries across Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Alongside country specific grants, ICAR receives core funding from the Governments of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Jersey, Norway and the UK.

Other Basel Institute programmes apply financial investigation and asset recovery tools in specific areas, such as environmental crime or cases at the subnational level.

How ICAR supports asset recovery and enforcement

We take a practical, partner-focused approach to building strong enforcement and asset recovery systems, covering:

Case-based advice and mentoring to support investigations, legal strategies and international cooperation. Our advisors are often embedded in national agencies and work directly with officers on live cases.

Training and education through skills-focused workshops and eLearning. Our training approach uses realistic case scenarios and group work to help participants immediately apply what they learn.

Tailored guidance to help partners strengthen laws, policies and practices in order to better combat financial crime, recover assets and implement international standards.

Advancing innovation and policy dialogue. We distill our on-the-ground insights into knowledge products to stregthen international standards and practices to make asset recovery more effective.

Our ultimate aim is to catalyse sustained improvements in asset recovery systems both within countries and internationally.

Advancing international asset recovery

ICAR investigators, prosecutors, trainers and legal advisors work with government partners across four continents to:

Break new ground in transnational asset recovery cases. The demand and buy-in for ICAR’s case-based assistance is formalised via Case Consultancy Agreements we sign with our government partners. These give us the legal mandate to support live financial crime investigations and prosecutions, including some of the highest profile and most complex transnational corruption cases. ICAR-supported cases resulted in the recovery of USD 62.9 million in assets in 2025.
Maximise asset recovery tools and innovation. ICAR helps partner countries to expand their asset recovery toolkit and their capacity to apply appropriate tools to investigate, confiscate and recover illicit assets. This includes legal instruments such as non-conviction based confiscation laws and negotiated agreements for asset returns.
Strengthen the asset recovery chain. The asset recovery “chain” is only as strong as its weakest link. We assist partner countries in strengthening their weaker links. ICAR supports legal and institutional reform efforts, from amending or introducing new legislation to establishing Asset Recovery Offices.
Foster communities and leaders. People are at the centre of the Basel Institute’s approach, because it is people that drive long-term behavioural and institutional change. We invest in developing leaders and champions of asset recovery at the national, regional and global levels through international networks and partnerships, and by building communities of practice that drive asset recovery forward.

ICAR Operational Strategy 2025–2028

Learn more about ICAR's approach, relevance and strategic priorities in the ICAR Operational Strategy 2025–2028.

View ICAR Strategy 2025–2028

Building resilience to illicit financial flows

Strong systems to detect, disrupt and recover illicit financial flows are essential for asset recovery and financial crime enforcement. We support governments, institutions and international partners to strengthen AML/CFT and broader financial crime frameworks through advisory, technical assistance and training.

Our work includes support on national and sectoral risk assessments, financial crime risk analysis, policy and institutional strengthening, and helping countries prepare for and respond to Financial Action Task Force (FATF) evaluations.

This work is informed by operational experience and specialist tools including the Basel AML Index, our independent ranking and risk assessment tool for money laundering and related financial crime risks around the world.

Together, these approaches help to:

strengthen countries’ understanding of financial crime risks and how to respond to them;
identify trends and emerging threats in illicit finance;
support preventive measures and informed policymaking, grounded in data and real-world experience