Financial Action Task Force blacklist
The Financial Action Task Force blacklist is a blacklist maintained by the Financial Action Task Force.
The blacklist has been issued by the FATF since 2000, and lists countries which FATF judges to be non-cooperative in the global fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, calling them "Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories".
Although non-appearance on the blacklist was perceived to be a mark of approbation for offshore financial centres that are sufficiently well regulated to meet all of the FATF's criteria, in practice, the list included countries that did not operate as offshore financial centres. The FATF updates the blacklist regularly, adding or deleting entries.
The FATF describes "High-risk jurisdictions subject to a Call for Action" as having "significant strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and financing of proliferation. For all countries identified as high-risk, the FATF calls on all members and urges all jurisdictions to apply enhanced due diligence. In the most serious cases, countries are called upon to apply counter-measures to protect the international financial system from the ongoing money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing risks emanating from the country". As of November 2022, only three countries were on the FATF blacklist: North Korea, Iran, and Myanmar.
The FATF has been characterized as effective in shifting laws and regulations to combat illicit financial flows. FATF incentivizes stricter regulations through its public noncomplier list, which leads financial institutions to shift resources and services away from the countries on the blacklist. This in turn motivates domestic economic and political actors in the listed countries to pressure their governments to introduce regulations that are compliant with the FATF.
History
The FATF was established by the G7 summit that was held in Paris in July 1989. Founding stakeholders include the G-7 Heads of State or Government, the President of the European Commission and eight other countries.The term "non-cooperative" was criticized by some analysts as misleading, as a number of countries on the list simply lacked the infrastructure or resources to cope with relatively sophisticated financial criminals who tried to operate there. Since 2008 the FATF has, at the behest of G20 leaders, installed a more analytical process for identifying jurisdictions deficient in their anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regimes.
Primary works
One of the main objectives of the FATF is to establish norms and standards of "legal, regulatory and operational measures" to fight against money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the security and integrity of the international financial system. However, FATF "has no investigative authority." FATF works with nation-states to bring legislative changes and regulatory reforms in the aforementioned sectors. In addition, the FATF also provides policy recommendations that meet international standards to countries for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. FATF has been providing policy recommendations since 1990 and their recommendations have been revised four times since then. FATF also monitors the situations of its members in establishing adequate measures and institutions to fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. FATF also makes sure that it is aware of national-level vulnerabilities of its member states "with the aim of protecting the international financial system from misuse."FATF member nations
Full members
According to its official website, there are 39 members of FATF and two Regional Organisations, representing most financial centers around the world.The list consisted of the following countries:
Observer nations
FATF Blacklisting reports
The Blacklist is a term used by the media, which is officially called a "Call for action" nations by the FATF.June 2000 report
The initial list of fifteen countries regarded as uncooperative in the fight against money laundering, was published in June 2000. The list consisted of the following countries:June 2001 report
June 2002 report
June 2003 report
July 2004 report
June 2005 Report
June 2006 report
June 2007 report
June 2008 report
FATF's Ninth Review identified the following countries as high risk and non-cooperative.June 2009 statement
October 2010 Statement
October 2011 Statement
February 2012 statement
High-risk and non-cooperative countries, to whom counter-measures applied:
June 2013
Jurisdictions subject to a FATF call on its members and other jurisdictions to apply counter-measures to protect the international financial system from the ongoing and substantial money laundering and terrorist financing risks emanating from the jurisdictions.
October 2013 statement
February 2014
June 2014 statement
February 2015 statement
October 2015 statement
Call to apply counter-measures:
February 2016 statement
February 2017 Statement
"The terrorism regime and the serious threat this poses to the integrity of the international financial system. The FATF urges the DPRK to immediately and meaningfully address its AML/CFT deficiencies. Further, FATF has serious concerns with the threat posed by DPRK's illicit activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and its financing."
Current FATF lists
Current FATF blacklist
As of 24 October 2025, the following countries were on this list:Basis for Blacklist Status
Iran has not yet completed its action plan, has not ratified the Palermo Convention or the Terrorist Financing Conventions, and requires significant additional steps to comply with FATF standards. Following the approval of Iran’s accession to the Palermo Convention, the FATF invited representatives of the Islamic Republic for discussions regarding Iran’s presence on the blacklist. Despite its accession to the Palermo Convention, according to Iran International, Iran has still not joined the CFT, and for years it has funded organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, which are considered terrorist organizations by much of the international community. On 24 October 2025, FATF announced that Iran would not be removed from its blacklist. Despite the regime’s approval of accession to the CFT and the Palermo Convention, FATF stated that Iran had not made substantive changes and continues to pose a high risk of terrorist financing, money laundering, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Myanmar has significant strategic deficiencies in its mechanisms for combating money laundering and terrorist financing, and will remain under close monitoring until it fully completes its action plan.
Current FATF grey list
As of 24 October 2025, the following 21 countries/territories were on this list:FATF review meeting
- In June 2021, the FATF stated that Mauritius and Botswana completed their action plans and would be subject to on-site visits before being removed from the list in October 2021.
- In June 2021, Ghana was removed from the grey list following the completion of its action plan and a successful on-site visit by assessors.
- In June 2021, Haiti, Malta, the Philippines and South Sudan have been added to the grey list.
- In March 2022, the United Arab Emirates was added to the grey list, while Zimbabwe was removed from the list.
- In October 2022, Pakistan was removed from the grey list.
- In February 2023, Morocco was removed from the grey list.
- Albania, the Cayman Islands, Jordan, and Panama, have been removed from the list.
- In October 2024, Lebanon was added to the grey list.
- In February 2025, the Philippines was removed from the grey list.
- In June 2025, Croatia was removed from the grey list.
- In October 2025, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa were removed from the grey list.
Other similar lists
OECD "grey list"
Although its main focus is on tax crime, the OECD is also concerned with money laundering and has complemented the work carried out by the FATF.The OECD has maintained a 'blacklist' of countries it considers "uncooperative tax havens" in the drive for transparency of tax affairs and the effective exchange of information, officially called "The List of Uncooperative Tax Havens". Since May 2009, no countries were officially listed as uncooperative tax havens in the light of their commitments to implement the OECD standards.
On 22 October 2008, at an OECD meeting in Paris, 17 countries led by France and Germany decided to draw up a new blacklist of tax havens. It had been asked to investigate around 40 new tax havens where undeclared revenue was hidden and which hosted many of the non-regulated hedge funds that came under fire during the 2008 financial crisis. Germany, France, and other countries called on the OECD to add Switzerland to a blacklist of countries which encourage tax fraud. On 2 April 2009, the OECD published a list of countries, divided into three parts depending on whether they implemented an "internationally agreed tax standard", in select jurisdictions – tax havens or other financial centers of interest.
- substantially implemented the standard: Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Grenada, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jersey, South Korea, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macao, Malaysia, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Montserrat, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Turks and Caicos Islands, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, US Virgin Islands, Vanuatu. This is not a complete list, as many countries, including Lebanon, Nigeria and many more are not included in this list.
- committed to the standard, but have not yet substantially implemented it: Nauru, Niue, Guatemala, Uruguay
- have not committed to the standard: none as of October 2009.
Global forum compliance