The Basel Institute on Governance recently published the Basel Anti-Money Laundering (AML) AML Index for 2015. The report provides an annual risk rating of money laundering and terrorist financing by ranking countries according to their risk of money laundering and terrorist financing. This year the report covers 152 countries.
The risk assessment includes the a review of the quality of a countries’ anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks and related factors such as financial sector standards and public transparency. The 2015 version includes a slightly adjusted methodology to take into account changes in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) evaluations, which is one of the key components used to calculate the Basel AML Index. The Basel AML Index overall score is derived from 14 indicators based on publicly available sources such as the FATF, Transparency International, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.
For brokerage firms with off-shore clients, this report provides valuable information on assisting in the assessment of risks related to those offshore clients. The full ranking is set forth in the report; however it is interesting to note that Paraguay, Haiti and Panama are in the top 25 countries with high AML risks (with Iran and Afghanistan being number 1 and 2 respectfully). The United States is ranked 103 out of 152, and Columbia, Peru, Jamaica and Chile are rated in the top 25 countries with the lowest AML risks.
For a copy of the report, click here.