Jordan, KSA Best Regionally in Combating Money Laundering

The Basel AML Index is an annual ranking assessing country risk regarding money laundering and terrorism financing [File: Reuters]

Jordan and Saudi Arabia have topped the Basel Anti-Money Laundering Index on the regional level.

The index focuses on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks, plus related factors that impact the risk of ML/TF, such as corruption, transparency and the rule of law.

Among the countries listed as having the highest risk ratings were: Tajikistan (8.30 points), Mozambique (8.28 points) and Afghanistan (8.28 points).

The seventh annual Basel Anti-Money Laundering Index features an overview of 129 countries according to their risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.

The risk scores for each country in the AML Index are based on 14 publicly available indicators of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks, corruption risk, financial transparency and standards, and public transparency and accountability.

Regionally, Yemen came first in risks among Arab states, with a score of 6.81 points, and 17 globally. Lebanon came fourth on the regional level with a score of 5.99 points and 42 globally. Yet, Lebanon witnessed a remarkable progress compared to last year’s outcome (7.07 points). The score of Jordan was 4.84 points with a global rank of 89 while Saudi Arabia’s score was 5.01 points with the position 81 globally.

“The downward trend is more striking,” said the report, which noted that “42 percent of countries have worsened their risk scores between 2017 and 2018. Almost 37 percent of countries now have a worse risk score than they did in 2012.”

In terms of general trends, 64 percent of countries show a significant risk of illegal activities.