Burundi — Country Risk Report

Burundi (Africa • East Africa). Risk report as of the 19 Jun 2026 FATF plenary.

High country risk, with elevated corruption risk. Burundi's country risk score is 6.1/10, placing it in the high-risk band. Some information is unavailable, so the available parts are rebalanced and the country will not be labelled Low risk while information is missing. The principal driver is weak corruption, alongside voice and accountability risk. Burundi is not currently FATF grey- or black-listed. Burundi is not subject to comprehensive country-wide sanctions. Firms should apply additional scrutiny where exposure involves state-linked entities, restricted sectors, sensitive technology, dual-use goods or politically exposed counterparties.

Recommended treatment

Enhanced due diligence.

At a glance

• FATF status: Not currently listed (one indicator only; it does not set the overall country risk rating by itself)
• Comprehensive country sanctions: none identified. Targeted sanctions exposure: programmes in place, screen applicable lists
• Government effectiveness and rule of law: 6.7/10
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 17/100, rank #167 of 182
• Enforcement data: not yet assessed (no RegActions coverage)

Country Risk Score: 6.1/10 (High)

Higher score means higher country risk (global average 4.6). Some information unavailable. Limited supporting information. Enforcement activity and CPI are shown for context but do not change the score.

One of the three parts is unavailable. The available parts are rebalanced, and the result will not be labelled Low risk while information is missing.

How this score was calculated

• Financial crime controls: information unavailable — 0% of this score
• Government effectiveness and rule of law: 6.7/10 — 60% of this score
• International sanctions: 5.2/10 — 40% of this score
• Financial crime controls information is unavailable.
• sector-wide international sanctions sets a minimum of 6.0, but the calculated score was already higher.

Principal risk drivers

• Sectoral sanctions exposure
• Corruption (WGI) — 8.2/10
• Voice & accountability — 6.9/10
• Rule of law & institutions — 6.4/10
• Political stability — 5.8/10

Mitigating factors

• Not currently on the FATF grey or black list.
• No comprehensive country-wide sanctions programme.
• Risk is concentrated in specific counterparties, sectors and transactions rather than applying uniformly.

Business impact

• Customer onboarding (High): Additional ownership and control verification may be required.
• Payments and transactions (High): Review transaction purpose, counterparties and geographic routing.
• Trade and export activity (High): Screen goods, end users and potential dual-use exposure.
• Corporate clients (High): Assess state ownership, government links and political exposure.
• Ongoing monitoring (High): Apply alerts for ownership changes, sanctions and geopolitical developments.

Recommended controls

• Verify ultimate beneficial ownership using more than one reliable source.
• Identify state ownership, government influence and politically exposed persons.
• Screen entities, directors and beneficial owners against applicable sanctions lists.
• Apply enhanced review to technology, defence, telecommunications, financial services and dual-use activity.
• Document transaction purpose and source of funds where cross-border structures are complex.
• Escalate unresolved ownership opacity or adverse information to Compliance.

Enhanced due diligence triggers

• State ownership / control
• PEP involvement
• Sensitive / restricted sectors
• Opaque ownership
• Adverse media
• Dual-use goods & technology
• High-risk intermediary routing

FATF status: Not currently listed

Burundi is not on the FATF grey or black list as of the 19 Jun 2026 plenary.

Sanctions: Sectoral

• EU — sectoral: Restrictive measures in view of the situation in Burundi (source)

Source details

International sanctions by issuing body

• UN: No
• EU: Yes (Sectoral)
• UK: No
• US: No

No means the complete UN, UK, EU and US review found no direct country-level programme. People or organisations may still appear on sanctions lists.

Government effectiveness and rule of law (World Bank 2024, percentile)

• Government Effectiveness: 32/100
• Regulatory Quality: 42/100
• Rule of Law: 35/100

Regulators and legal framework

FATF network

FATF network via ESAAMLG.

• Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group

National regulators

Regulator profiles not yet available on RegActions.

FIU: Not an Egmont Group member

Framework signals

• FATF listing: Not currently listed
• International sanctions: sectoral exposure
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 17/100, rank #167 of 182
• Rule of law (WGI): 6.4/10 risk

Sector exposure

• Banking & payments (Elevated): Weak rule-of-law governance (WGI 6.4/10 risk)
• Trade & export controls (High): Sectoral sanctions: Restrictive measures in view of the situation in Burundi
• Crypto & virtual assets (Elevated): Weak accountability governance (WGI 6.9/10 risk)
• Real estate & luxury assets (High): Severe corruption exposure (CPI 17/100) drives laundering risk
• State-linked & procurement (High): High state-capture risk (corruption WGI 8.2/10)

Derived from sanctions tier, FATF listing, World Bank WGI governance and CPI; no per-sector dataset is asserted.

Burundi: analysis

Burundi's profile reflects a severely weak governance environment across all four domains, with no FATF or sanctions overlay. The most critical domain is corruption at a severe level (35% weight), which is among the highest readings in this batch. Rule of law and institutions (40% weight) represents the primary structural driver. Voice and accountability and political stability add further risk. The CPI reading is exceptionally low and signals very high corruption risk in the real economy.

Outlook

Burundi's risk trajectory is concerning. The combination of very low CPI performance and high governance risk scores across all domains suggests limited institutional capacity to address financial crime vulnerabilities. The absence of a FATF listing does not diminish the inherent AML/CFT risk indicated by the governance and transparency data. Medium-term improvement would require fundamental institutional reform.

Key watchpoints

• Corruption control, given the CPI reading and a WGI corruption severe risk rating.
• Any FATF engagement or listing decision, given the severity of underlying governance weaknesses.
• Rule-of-law developments, which at an elevated level and 40% weighting are the primary governance driver.
• Political stability trends at an elevated level, which could deteriorate further and impair institutional function.

Assessment currency

• FATF status: Not listed (as of 19 Jun 2026)
• Sanctions exposure: Targeted programmes in place (as of Jul 2026)
• Governance (WGI): Latest dataset incorporated (as of 2024)
• Corruption (CPI): 17/100 (as of 2025)
• RegActions assessment: Reviewed (as of 19 Jun 2026)

Public evidence layer

FATF action: none. No FATF call-for-action or increased-monitoring status was identified at the latest plenary. This does not establish low risk.

Contextual signals (not scored)

• FATF network membership: FATF regional network: ESAAMLG (present, as of 2026-07)
• EU non-cooperative tax jurisdictions: Not listed in Annex I (absent, as of 2026-02-17)
• Egmont Group FIU: No Egmont member FIU identified (absent, as of 2026-07-17)
• Beneficial-ownership register: No live register identified in the source (unavailable, as of 2026-07-17)
• Transparency International CPI: 17/100, rank 167 (present, as of 2025)

Evidence freshness

• FATF monitored-jurisdiction status: current; data 2026-06-19
• FATF mutual evaluation and follow-up ratings: current; data 2026-07-31
• World Bank governance indicators: current; data 2024
• UN, UK, EU and US sanctions regimes: current; data 2026-08-13

Contextual signals are public evidence only and do not change the immutable v2 score.

Download evidence PDF · CSV · JSON

Regional peer scores

• Central African Republic: 7.8/10 (Very high)
• Democratic Republic of the Congo: 7.6/10 (Very high)
• Somalia: 7.3/10 (Very high)
• South Sudan: 7.3/10 (Very high)
• Sudan: 7.1/10 (Very high)
• Eritrea: 6.9/10 (High)

Source: FATF black & grey lists · World Bank WGI (CC BY 4.0 — World Bank WGI) · TI CPI (CC BY-ND 4.0 — Transparency International, display only)