Analytics, Corruption, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation, Rating

The Basel AML Index is an annual ranking assessing country risk regarding money laundering/terrorism financing. It focuses on anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CTF) frameworks and other related factors such as financial/public transparency and judicial strength.

The three lowest risk countries are the same as last year – Finland (3.04 points), followed by Lithuania (3.67 points) and Estonia (3.83 points). The countries with the highest risk are Iran (8.6 points) and Afghanistan (8.38 points).

Latvia in the rating scored 4.44 points. Latvia has improved it position in a year, climbing from the 28th place last year to the 14th position.

The Basel AML Index measures the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing of countries based on publicly available sources. A total of 14 indicators that deal with AML/CFT regulations, corruption, financial standards, political disclosure and rule of law are aggregated into one overall risk score. By combining these various data sources, the overall risk score represents a holistic assessment addressing structural as well as functional elements in the AML/CFT framework. As there are no quantitative data available, the Basel AML Index does not measure the actual existence of money laundering activity or amount of illicit financial money within a country but is designed to indicate the risk level, i.e. the vulnerabilities of money laundering and terrorist financing within a country.

The Basel Institute on Governance is an independent not-for-profit competence center working around the world with the public and private sectors to counter corruption and other financial crimes and to improve the quality of governance. The Basel Institute is an Associated Institute of the University of Basel.