Paris, August 28, 2025 – The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has today launched a Money Laundering (ML) National Risk Assessment (NRA) toolkit designed to help countries develop and strengthen their risk-based approach to fighting financial crime.

These new practical resources will support countries in assessing their money laundering risks in line with the FATF Standards.

Key areas of risk

Crime generates vast illicit revenues every year, estimated to reach trillions of USD.  When laundered, this money flows right back into the pockets of criminals, enabling them to continue exploiting communities worldwide, whether through corruption that robs society of essential services, drug trafficking that destroys lives or fraud that can wipe out family savings in seconds.

This toolkit provides countries with cross-country risk insights, such as proceeds of crime estimates and most common types of predicate offences and money laundering on a domestic and international level, to help governments and the private sector address the highest risks to ensure that crime does not pay.

The toolkit highlights the international, cross-border nature of money laundering, aided by the speed and ease with which new technologies allow funds to travel between jurisdictions. It encourages countries to develop awareness of global and regional trends and combine this with knowledge of their unique national risk and context for a stronger risk understanding.

Good practices in assessing risk

The toolkit covers four priority areas: corruption, Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers, legal persons and legal arrangements, and the informal economy. It focuses on these areas as they consistently challenging to assess because of data limitations, rapidly evolving typologies, or the cross-cutting nature of risks.  These areas are often linked and used in combination to launder funds, for example, corrupt officials may exploit their positions to siphon government funds and use shell companies to disguise the origin and movements of funds.

It includes examples from countries across the FATF Global Network to illustrate how jurisdictions are assessing risk to help them tackle money laundering relating to corruption, cash-based economies, beneficial ownership, and emerging technologies. By integrating findings across these risk areas, rather than assessing them in isolation, countries can build a more comprehensive and effective anti-money laundering (AML) framework.

FATF President Elisa de Anda Madrazo emphasised: “To effectively fight financial crime, we need to have a clear understanding of the risks we face. This is the essential first step to taking a risk-based approach which is the centrepiece of the FATF’s approach to safeguarding against crime. A risk-based approach ensures smart prioritisation of resources to combat financial crime where it is really hurting our communities. It also means a proportionate response which means that activity isn’t driven into the dark where we cannot see it. I encourage everyone to make use of this new toolkit to improve our collective understanding of money laundering risks.”

Tailored guidance

Aimed at all government authorities involved in or responsible for assessing risk, the information in the toolkit can be incorporated into a full National Risk Assessment (NRA), applied in a sectoral or thematic risk assessment, or used to support other work to improve risk understanding. The toolkit is designed to be flexible, accessible, and tailored to country-specific needs, aiming to:

• Offer cross-country insights into common money laundering risks, predicate offences, and laundering methods.
• Provide practical examples and best practices from a variety of jurisdictions to support others in improving their risk assessment process and overcoming commonly reported challenges.
• Support countries in identifying data gaps, prioritising further work to enhance risk understanding, and developing targeted action plans to mitigate their risks.

The FATF has also today updated its National Risk Assessment Guidance, reflecting recent amendments to Recommendation 1 of the FATF Standards and the Guidance on Financial Inclusion and Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Measures.

Money Laundering National Risk Assessment toolkit is now available here.