Most of the top 10 highest risk countries in money laundering/terrorist financing remain
unchanged for the fourth year in a row, according to the 2015 Basel AML Index.

The Basel Institute on Governance releases today the 2015 Basel Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Index, which is an annual ranking assessing 152 countries regarding money laundering/terrorism financing risks. This is the fourth annual release of the Basel AML Index and it continues to be the only research-based rating of country money laundering/terrorist financing risk by an independent non-profit institution.

2015 results:

• The top 10 countries identified as the highest risk are Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, GuineaBissau, Mali, Cambodia, Mozambique, Uganda, Swaziland and Myanmar.
• Within Europe and Central Asia, the top five highest risk countries are Tajikistan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Kazakhstan, but among the EU Member States, Luxembourg, Greece, Germany, Austria and Italy have the highest risks.
• The Sub-Saharan African region has the greatest risk worldwide with Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Mozambique, Uganda and Swaziland as the top highest risk countries within their region.
• Paraguay, Bolivia, Haiti, Panama, and Argentina lead in the Latin America & Caribbean regions as highest risk countries.
• In the East & South Asia including Pacific Region Afghanistan, Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal and Laos are ranked as highest risk.
• Iran, Yemen and Lebanon are the highest risk countries in the Middle East & North Africa region. 

This year’s ranking has shown that little has changed, compared to the 2014 edition, within the top 10 countries considered as the highest risk regarding money laundering/terrorism financing; also Finland and Estonia remain the lowest risk in 2015.

The greatest improvements from the previous 2014 edition have been made by Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates. The countries that significantly worsened their scores in the 2015 Basel AML Index are Guinea, Guatemala, Jamaica, and Montenegro. The data as summarised above from the 2015 Basel AML Index illustrates that the risk of money laundering/terrorism financing is particularly high in low-income countries with inadequate anti-money laundering legislation and structural and functional vulnerabilities such as high rates of perceived corruption, lack of judicial strength and lack of public and financial transparency.

However, also several high-income and known financial centres perform only with average scores when it comes to addressing risks of money laundering.

More information about the Basel AML Index along with a report detailing the findings and methodology is available at: index.baselgovernance.org