Index shows Estonia as country with lowest money laundering risk globally

TALLINN – Estonia has been ranked as the country with the lowest risk of money laundering and terrorist finance in the world, according to the Basel AML Index scoreboard.

Estonia is ranked in the last, 125th spot among as many nations in the fresh edition of the scoreboard published earlier this week. Places 124-121 are occupied by Finland, New Zealand, Macedonia and Sweden, respectively.

The table is topped by Mozambique, Laos, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Liberia, in that order.

The Basel AML Index measures the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing in countries using data from publicly available sources such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Transparency International, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.

A total of 15 indicators of countries' adherence to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regulations, levels of corruption, financial standards, political disclosure and the rule of law are aggregated into one overall risk score.

The Basel AML Index does not measure the actual amount of money laundering or terrorist financing activity, but rather is designed to assess the risk of such activity. Money laundering and terrorist financing risk is understood as a broad risk area in relation to a country's vulnerability to and its capacities to counter it.