The Basel Institute on Governance is delighted to have signed a cooperation agreement with the Procuraduría General del Estado in Ecuador. The agreement covers collaboration with our International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) in the recovery of assets resulting from corruption, money laundering and other financial crimes affecting the State.

We are delighted to welcome Liechtenstein as an inaugural core donor to our Green Corruption programme.

The programme applies anti-corruption, follow-the-money and governance approaches to critical issues of environmental degradation. Liechtenstein’s support and endorsement are particularly valuable as we ramp up and expand the programme, building on a strong base of evidence and experience gained through our efforts in the last years to tackle financial crime in illegal wildlife trade.

The Basel Institute's Green Corruption programme is launching an ambitious two-year research collaboration with the Targeting Natural Resource Corruption (TNRC) project. The aim is to fill crucial gaps in understanding and addressing the corruption that fuels illegal wildlife trade and other threats to our planet.

We are delighted about the signing of a trilateral agreement on the return of illicitly acquired assets to Peru.

Basel AML Index 2020: Weak oversight and dormant systems leave countries’ doors wide open to money laundering

Released today, the 9th Basel AML Index will disappoint anyone wishing for tangible progress in combating money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) around the world. 

The average ML/TF risk score across all 141 countries in the 2020 Public Edition of the Basel AML Index remains unacceptably high at 5.22 out of 10, where 10 equals maximum risk. In fact, only six countries improved their scores by more than one point. 35 countries went backwards.

We are happy to announce that our Public Finance Management programme in Peru has been extended for another four years, following an excellent performance in the programme’s external evaluation.

Launched in 2015 and run out of our regional office in Lima, the programme is funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). It aims to strengthen public financial management among 11 local and regional governments in Peru.

The Basel Institute on Governance is pleased to announce that it has received renewed funding to deepen its anti-corruption Collective Action work from the Siemens Integrity Initiative’s Third Funding Round. The project will run from 2019 through 2024 and will be implemented in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Falling rankings in the Basel AML Index, released today, show how many countries’ AML systems are a weak defence against today’s money laundering risks.

Ineffective anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) systems and lack of transparency are leaving the door open to increasingly sophisticated money laundering schemes.

Elmer Chirre, Peru's Specialised Prosecutor for Corruption, and Amado Enco, Specialised Anti-Corruption State Attorney, have jointly recovered over PEN 65 million (USD 19.5 million) in the first successful asset recovery case related to Operation Car Wash.

Kenya's Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has recovered 19 corruptly acquired assets worth KES 2,730,571,000 (over USD 27 million) in the first four months of 2019 alone. The assets – a mix of cash and landed properties, including a fire station, Kenya Railways land and a beachfront property – are being returned to the public treasury, along with significant fines paid by individuals convicted of corruption and bribery.