Belize's measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing

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The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) completed an assessment of Belize's measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

The assessment is a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of Belize's measures to protect the financial system from abuse and its level of compliance with the FATF Recommendations, as at the date of the on-site visit from 4-15 December 2023.

The findings of this assessment have been reviewed and endorsed by the FATF.

Please refer to the Executive Summary of the report for the Key Findings and Priority Actions.

CFATF Mutual Evaluation of Belize - 2025

Filename
Belize-MER-2024.pdf
Size
3 MB
Format
application/pdf
Read the report

CFATF MER Belize in Spanish

Filename
Belize-MER-Sp-2024.pdf
Size
4 MB
Format
application/pdf
Leer en español

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.

Belize MER Ratings 2025

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

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.

Belize MER Ratings 2025

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

C = compliant   |   LC = largely compliant     |   PC = partially compliant   |   NC = non-compliant

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.

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
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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: August 2024