Bahrain tops Arab region with lowest risk of money laundering on Basel AML Index
Bahrain ranked first in the Arab region and second in the Middle East, for the second year in a row, on the Basel AML Index is an independent annual ranking that assesses the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) around the world.
Bahrain, scored 4.5 points according to the report, which is the only independent indicator issued by a non-profit organization, rating countries worldwide according to the risk of money laundering, said Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) Deputy Governor Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa, also Chair of the committee in charge of setting policies to prohibit and combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
In a statement today the CBB Deputy Governor said that the Kingdom of Bahrain ranked second, after Israel, among Mideast countries, for combating money laundering.
He praised the support of the Interior Minister, Chairman of the Committee to Combat Extremism, Terrorism, Its Financing and Money Laundering.
He highlighted Bahrain’s role and efforts to combat money laundering and drying up terror financing, which consolidated the Kingdom’s standing on the international map.
Head of the Interior Ministry’s Financial Investigation Unit, Deputy Chair of committee in charge of setting policies to prohibit and combat money laundering and terrorist financing, Shaikha Mai bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, stressed the department’s keenness on bolstering Bahrain’s regional and international role in combating money laundering and drying up terror financing.
Published by the Basel Institute on Governance since 2012, the Basel AML Index provides risk scores based on data from 17 publicly available sources such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Transparency International, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.
The risk scores cover five domains: Quality of ML/TF Framework; bribery and corruption; financial transparency and standards; public transparency and accountability and legal and political risks.
