Financial Crime Risk Index
A structured assessment of the risk that a jurisdiction enables, facilitates, or fails to prevent financial crime — covering AML/CTF effectiveness, corruption, sanctions exposure, beneficial ownership transparency, financial secrecy, and digital financial crime risk across 190 markets. Higher scores indicate lower financial crime risk.
A representative selection of financial crime risk scores across the spectrum. The full 190-country dataset — including all eight category-level sub-scores — is available on subscription.
Lowest financial crime risk
✓ Public| # | Country | Score | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finland | 96.2 | Very Low |
| 2 | Iceland | 95.8 | Very Low |
| 3 | Denmark | 95.4 | Very Low |
| 4 | New Zealand | 94.9 | Very Low |
| 5 | Switzerland | 94.2 | Very Low |
| 6 | Sweden | 93.8 | Very Low |
| 7 | Norway | 93.4 | Very Low |
| 8 | Estonia | 92.7 | Very Low |
| 9 | Australia | 92.1 | Very Low |
| 10 | Luxembourg | 91.6 | Very Low |
Highest financial crime risk
✓ Public| # | Country | Score | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 190 | North Korea | 1.2 | Very High |
| 189 | Myanmar | 2.4 | Very High |
| 188 | Iran | 3.1 | Very High |
| 187 | Laos | 5.8 | Very High |
| 186 | Haiti | 7.2 | Very High |
| 185 | Yemen | 8.9 | Very High |
| 184 | Syria | 9.4 | Very High |
| 183 | South Sudan | 11.2 | Very High |
| 182 | Somalia | 12.7 | Very High |
| 181 | Mozambique | 14.3 | Very High |
Full Financial Crime Risk Index · 190 countries
⬤ Subscription required| # | Country | Score | AML/CTF | Corruption | Secrecy | Sanctions | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Netherlands | 91.2 | 90.4 | 92.1 | 88.6 | 93.7 | ▲ 0.4 |
| 12 | Canada | 90.7 | 89.8 | 91.4 | 87.9 | 93.2 | ▼ 0.2 |
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Built for compliance-driven decisions
Financial crime risk is not a subset of political or economic risk — a country can be stable and prosperous while still presenting significant AML, sanctions, or transparency risk. The Financial Crime Risk Index is built for organisations where compliance is a primary constraint on market entry, counterparty selection, and product distribution.
KYC & AML country risk ratings
Banks, insurers, and payment providers need jurisdiction-level financial crime risk scores to calibrate KYC requirements, set enhanced due diligence thresholds, and justify compliance decisions to regulators.
Market entry compliance screening
Fintechs expanding into new markets need to assess AML framework quality, licensing risk, and sanctions exposure before investing in market entry — this index provides a structured starting point.
Third-party & supply chain due diligence
Country-level financial crime risk is a key input into third-party due diligence frameworks — particularly for companies with global supply chains or distribution partners in higher-risk jurisdictions.
Aid, lending & partnership risk
Development finance institutions and donor governments use financial crime risk assessments to condition lending and aid disbursement, and to set anti-corruption requirements for programme recipients.
What the Financial Crime Risk Index measures
The index draws on eight analytical categories — covering both the formal legal and regulatory framework and real-world effectiveness. A country can have strong laws on paper while enforcement remains negligible; the index is calibrated to capture that gap, drawing on FATF effectiveness ratings rather than technical compliance scores alone.
AML/CTF System Effectiveness
- FATF mutual evaluation effectiveness ratings
- FATF grey/blacklist status
- Basel AML Index composite score
- ML prosecutions and convictions
- Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) filing rates
- Financial Intelligence Unit capacity
Corruption & Bribery Risk
- Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) score
- Bribery incidence in business transactions
- State capture indicators
- Procurement corruption prevalence
- Nepotism in financial sector appointments
Sanctions & Proliferation Risk
- Active US/EU/UN sanctions designations
- Secondary sanctions exposure
- Free trade zone control quality
- Export control regime strength
- Arms embargo status
- FATF proliferation financing ratings
Terrorist Financing Risk
- Global Terrorism Index score
- Listed terrorist organisation presence
- Informal value transfer network density
- Cash economy size
- CTF prosecution and conviction rates
- FATF CTF effectiveness ratings
Beneficial Ownership & Transparency
- Beneficial ownership register quality
- Corporate registry accuracy and accessibility
- Nominee director and shareholder prevalence
- Trust registration requirements
- Real estate ownership transparency
Financial Secrecy & Offshore Risk
- Financial Secrecy Index score
- Bank secrecy legislation strength
- CRS compliance and information exchange rating
- Offshore financial centre size / GDP
- EU/OECD non-cooperative jurisdiction status
Regulatory & Supervisory Quality
- Supervisor independence from political interference
- Enforcement action track record
- DNFBP sector coverage and supervision
- Whistleblower protection quality
- IMF FSAP supervisory assessment
Digital Financial Crime & Crypto Risk
- FATF VASP registration compliance
- Cybercrime legislation quality
- Ransomware exposure and incident frequency
- Digital fraud prevalence
- Budapest Convention membership
- Crypto-asset regulatory maturity
Grey and black list tracking
FATF list status is one of the most significant binary signals in financial crime risk — grey list placement triggers enhanced monitoring obligations for correspondent banks globally, and black list placement amounts to a near-complete severance from the international financial system. PoliData tracks list changes in real time and incorporates FATF plenary outcomes into index updates within 30 days of publication.
Get full access to the Financial Crime Risk Index
190 markets. Eight analytical categories. Real-time FATF list tracking. Quarterly updates covering AML, sanctions, secrecy, and digital crime risk.