Financial Action Task Force blacklist
The Financial Action Task Force blacklist (often abbreviated to FATF blacklist, and officially known as the "Call for action") is a blacklist maintained by the Financial Action Task Force.
Overview
The Financial Action Task Force blacklist (often abbreviated to FATF blacklist, and officially known as the "Call for action") 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" (NCCTs). Although non-appearance on the blacklist was perceived to be a mark of approbation for offshore financial centres (or "tax havens") 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 February 2026, 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."
Full members
According to its official website, there are 39 members of FATF (earlier 40 members, Russia's membership was suspended in Feb 2023) and two Regional Organisations (European Union and Gulf Cooperation Council), representing most financial centers around the world. The list consisted of the following countries:
Observer nations
There are currently no FATF observer nations, but many financial institutions participate at that level.
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
The second FATF report, published in 2001 and including a supplemental report in September, denoted a further eight countries as non-cooperative:
June 2002 report
According to June 2002 report from FATF, following countries were listed as NCCTs.
June 2003 report
According to a June 2003 report from FATF, the following countries were listed as NCCTs.
July 2004 report
According to the July 2004 report from FATF, the following countries were listed as NCCTs.
June 2005 Report
According to June 2005 report from FATF, the following were listed as NCCTs.
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