Austria's measures to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing

Publication details

Language

English

 

Country

Austria

Mutual Evaluation Report of Austria - 2026

Filename
MER-Austria-2026.pdf
Size
9 MB
Format
application/pdf
Read the report

30 April 2026 - The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) mutual evaluation of Austria, led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), assessed the effectiveness of the country’s anti-money laundering, countering terrorist financing and proliferation financing (AML/CFT/CPF) measures, and their level of compliance with the FATF Recommendations, at the time of an on-site visit between June and July 2025.

The evaluation found that Austria has made clear progress in strengthening its AML/CFT legal and regulatory framework, with notable improvements related to transparency of beneficial ownership, financial sector supervision and terrorist financing investigations. While measures have been taken to increase the effectiveness of Austria’s AML/CFT framework, improvements are still needed, in particular to increase the operational capacity and resources of the financial intelligence unit (FIU), law enforcement and prosecution in order to be able to effectively investigate and prosecute sophisticated money laundering cases and confiscate criminal proceeds at sufficient levels.

Key findings set out in the report include:

Risks, resources and coordination (IO.1)

  • Since its last assessment, Austria has taken actions to better identify money laundering and terrorist financing risks, including through its most recent national risk assessment in 2025. However, a nuanced and consistent risk understanding across all competent authorities and a whole-of-government view are yet to be achieved.
  • Austria is mainly exposed to money laundering threats associated with fraud, tax offences, drug related crimes, organised crime, foreign and domestic proceeds of corruption, and smuggling offences.
  • The National Coordination Committee serves as a domestic cooperation and coordination mechanism on anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing matters and has played a crucial role in advancing key measures against illicit finance. However, the NCC should be further strengthened by developing accountability and feedback mechanisms to ensure consistency in the members’ commitment and input, and facilitate the development, monitoring, and shared responsibility for joint objectives.

International cooperation (IO.2)

  • Austria has a strong legal framework enabling international cooperation through a range of formal and informal cooperation instruments, channels, and networks. However, considering its regional exposure to organised crime activities, mutual legal assistance is not fully consistent with the country’s risk profile.
  • The country has also not demonstrated effectiveness in asset recovery assistance.

Supervision and preventive measures (IO.3/IO.4)

  • The Financial Market Authority has positively deepened its risk-based, data-driven supervision of the financial sector and virtual asset service providers. However, authorities should further increase risk-based inspections and strengthen group-wide supervision.
  • Except for casino supervision, and to some extent for lawyers and notaries, overall Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBP) supervision suffers from major shortcomings, including fragmentation, shortage of resources, and few remedial actions.

Transparency and beneficial ownership (IO.5)

  • Austria effectively implements a multi-pronged approach to ensure timely access to adequate, accurate, and up to date beneficial ownership information, with the Beneficial Ownership Register serving as a central tool for authorities.
  • Financial institutions and DNFBPs have a good understanding of the usefulness of the Beneficial Ownership Register and many of them make adequate use of the system.

Financial intelligence (IO.6)

  • Austria has made progress transforming its FIU from an investigative unit into an intelligence unit. Its operational and strategic analysis capabilities suffer however from insufficient resources, and limitations in budgetary and recruitment independence.
  • The financial intelligence unit focuses too narrowly on predicate offences, and does not sufficiently address complex or cross-border money laundering cases.

Money laundering investigations and prosecutions (IO.7)

  • While Austria has a legal and institutional framework for the identification and prosecution of money laundering, restrictive interpretations of the money laundering offence continue to limit investigation and prosecution, and the overall number of cases remains low.
  • Law enforcement authorities demonstrate strong expertise and capabilities when investigating money laundering activities linked to predicate offences such as fraud, but face difficulties in detecting money laundering in other instances.
  • Sanctions imposed for money laundering offences are also not sufficiently effective and dissuasive.

Asset Recovery (IO.8)

  • Austria prioritises asset recovery as a policy objective to some extent, having applied freezing and seizure measures to a broad range of assets, including in complex cases.
  • Yet, comprehensive asset recovery strategy at the national level is lacking and overall effectiveness is hampered by the insufficient number of investigators and prosecutors. Asset confiscation is implemented only to a limited extent, and the levels of seized assets that are returned to victims in the course of proceedings is low.

Terrorist financing and proliferation financing (IO.9/IO.10/IO.11)

  • Austria has a sound legal framework in place to counter terrorist financing and is to a large extent implementing it effectively, mostly to counter small-scale terrorist financing activities representative of the country’s risk and context.
  • The country conducts a substantive number of terrorist financing investigations and prosecution broadly in line with its risk profile.
  • The country has effective coordination and cooperation mechanisms in place, both at policy and operational level, to combat proliferation financing.

Further action

Following the assessment, Austria received a roadmap of Key Recommended Actions that it must complete within three years, such as deepening its understanding of domestic and trans-national money laundering and terrorist financing threats, ensuring its financial intelligence unit is appropriately resourced and taking steps to ensure authorities can effectively secure prosecution of the full range of money laundering offences.

Based on Effectiveness and Technical Compliance Ratings, Austria is placed in enhanced follow-up. Austria will report back to the FATF on its progress.

Ratings

Effectiveness

Ratings that reflect the extent to which a country's measures are effective. The assessment is conducted on the basis of 11 immediate outcomes, which represent key goals that an effective AML/CFT system should achieve.

Ratings that reflect the extent to which a country's measures are effective. The assessment is conducted on the basis of 11 immediate outcomes, which represent key goals that an effective AML/CFT system should achieve.

Austria Mutual Evaluation - 2026

IO1
ME
IO2
ME
IO3
SE
IO4
ME
IO5
HE
IO6
ME
IO7
ME
IO8
ME
IO9
SE
IO10
ME
IO11
ME

HE = high level of effectiveness   |   SE = substantial level of effectiveness    |   ME = moderate level of effectiveness   |   LE = low level of effectiveness

Technical Compliance

Ratings which reflect the extent to which a country has implemented the technical requirements of the FATF Recommendations.

Austria Mutual Evaluation - 2026

R.1 - Assessing risk & applying risk-based approach
LC
R.2 - National cooperation and coordination
LC
R.3 - Money laundering offence
LC
R.4 - Confiscation and provisional measures
LC
R.5 - Terrorist financing offence
C
R.6 - Targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism & terrorist financing
LC
R.7 - Targeted financial sanctions related to proliferation
LC
R.8 - Non-profit organisations
C
R.9 - Financial institution secrecy laws
C
R.10 - Customer due diligence
LC
R.11 - Record keeping
LC
R.12 - Politically exposed persons
C
R.13 - Correspondent banking
LC
R.14 - Money or value transfer services
LC
R.15 - New technologies
LC
R.16 - Wire transfers
LC
R.17 - Reliance on third parties
LC
R.18 - Internal controls and foreign branches and subsidiaries
C
R.19 - Higher-risk countries
LC
R.20 - Reporting of suspicious transactions
C
R.21 - Tipping-off and confidentiality
C
R.22 - DNFBPs: Customer due diligence
LC
R.23 - DNFBPs: Other measures
PC
R.24 - Transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons
LC
R.25 - Transparency and beneficial ownership of legal arrangements
LC
R.26 - Regulation and supervision of financial institutions
C
R.27 - Powers of supervisors
C
R.28 - Regulation and supervision of DNFBPs
LC
R.29 - Financial intelligence units
LC
R.30 - Responsibilities of law enforcement and investigative authorities
C
R.31 - Powers of law enforcement and investigative authorities
LC
R.32 - Cash couriers
LC
R.33 - Statistics
LC
R.34 - Guidance and feedback
C
R.35- Sanctions
LC
R.36 - International instruments
C
R.37 - Mutual legal assistance
C
R.38 - Mutual legal assistance: freezing and confiscation
LC
R.39 - Extradition
C
R.40 - Other forms of international cooperation
LC

C = compliant   |   LC = largely compliant     |   PC = partially compliant   |   NC = non-compliant   |   NA = not applicable

Related materials

The FATF Recommendations

The FATF Recommendations are the basis on which all countries should meet the shared objective of tackling money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation. The FATF calls upon all countries to effectively implement these measures in their national systems.
Read more

Mutual Evaluations

The FATF conducts peer reviews of each member on an ongoing basis to assess levels of implementation of the FATF Recommendations, providing an in-depth description and analysis of each country’s system for preventing criminal abuse of the financial system
Read more
ESAAMLG Logo

The 2022 and 2013 Methodologies for Assessing Technical Compliance with the FATF Recommendations and the Effectiveness of AML/CFT/CPF Systems

These documents are guides intended for use by assessors who are tasked with conducting a mutual evaluation. They provide a structured framework of analysis that ensures a level of consistency and high quality of the mutual evaluation reports produced. Latest update: December 2025
Read more