Dominican Republic — Country Risk Report

Dominican Republic (Americas • Caribbean). Risk report as of the 19 Jun 2026 FATF plenary.

Moderate country risk, with elevated corruption risk. Dominican Republic's country risk score is 3.9/10, placing it in the moderate-risk band. The principal driver is weak corruption, alongside rule of law and institutions risk. Dominican Republic is not currently FATF grey- or black-listed. Dominican Republic 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

Standard due diligence, with enhanced checks for defined risk triggers.

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: possible, screen applicable persons, entities and sectors
• Government effectiveness and rule of law: 4.3/10
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 37/100, rank #99 of 182
• Enforcement data: not yet assessed (no RegActions coverage)

Country Risk Score: 3.9/10 (Moderate)

Higher score means higher country risk (global average 4.6). Full information available. Some evidence is older. Enforcement activity and CPI are shown for context but do not change the score.

All three parts of the score are available.

How this score was calculated

• Financial crime controls: 5.3/10 — 50% of this score
• Government effectiveness and rule of law: 4.3/10 — 30% of this score
• International sanctions: 0.0/10 — 20% of this score
• The FATF assessment is more than five years old.

International sanctions contributes 0.0 because the complete UN, UK, EU and US review found no direct country-level sanctions programme. People or organisations connected to the country may still appear on sanctions lists.

Principal risk drivers

• Corruption (WGI) — 5.8/10

Mitigating factors

• Not currently on the FATF grey or black list.
• No comprehensive country-wide sanctions programme.
• Comparatively stronger political stability (2.4/10).
• Risk is concentrated in specific counterparties, sectors and transactions rather than applying uniformly.

Business impact

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

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

Source details

International sanctions by issuing body

• UN: No
• EU: No
• 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: 53/100
• Regulatory Quality: 58/100
• Rule of Law: 54/100

Regulators and legal framework

FATF network

FATF network via CFATF · GAFILAT.

• Caribbean Financial Action Task Force
• Financial Action Task Force of Latin America

Last mutual evaluation: 2018 · report

National regulators

Regulator profiles not yet available on RegActions.

FIU: Egmont Group member (UAF)

Framework signals

• FATF listing: Not currently listed
• International sanctions: no listed programme identified
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 37/100, rank #99 of 182
• Rule of law (WGI): 4.5/10 risk

Sector exposure

• Banking & payments (Low): No FATF listing, rule-of-law governance within normal range
• Trade & export controls (Low): No sanctions programme or FATF black-list constraint identified
• Crypto & virtual assets (Low): No FATF listing, accountability governance within normal range
• Real estate & luxury assets (Elevated): Elevated corruption exposure (CPI 37/100)
• State-linked & procurement (Low): Political-stability and corruption governance within normal range

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

Dominican Republic: analysis

The Dominican Republic's profile reflects a governance picture with marked variation across domains. Corruption (elevated) is the weakest area, consistent with a weak CPI reading that places the country below the global median. Rule of law and institutions (moderate) and voice and accountability (moderate) present moderate weaknesses. Political stability (strong) is comparatively strong. No FATF or sanctions overlay applies. The country sits near the middle of the World Bank governance indicators and warrants standard enhanced due diligence on higher-risk business categories rather than blanket elevated scrutiny.

Outlook

The Dominican Republic's risk trajectory is broadly stable, though corruption in public procurement and the financial sector remains a structural concern. Continued progress on anti-money-laundering frameworks will be important as the country's financial sector grows. The absence of FATF listing preserves access to international financial markets, but sustained improvement in the CPI would be required to strengthen the governance picture materially. The October 2026 FATF plenary should be monitored for any regional assessments that could affect correspondent banking relationships.

Key watchpoints

• Corruption risk in sectors with high cash intensity, including tourism and real estate.
• Regulatory effectiveness of the anti-money-laundering supervisory framework.
• CPI trend: any decline below the current score of 36 would indicate a deteriorating corruption environment.
• FATF plenary outcomes for the Caribbean region in October 2026.

Assessment currency

• FATF status: Not listed (as of 19 Jun 2026)
• Sanctions exposure: None identified (as of Jul 2026)
• Governance (WGI): Latest dataset incorporated (as of 2024)
• Corruption (CPI): 37/100 (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: CFATF, GAFILAT (present, as of 2026-07)
• EU non-cooperative tax jurisdictions: Not listed in Annex I (absent, as of 2026-02-17)
• Egmont Group FIU: UAF (present, as of 2026-07-17)
• Beneficial-ownership register: No live register identified in the source (unavailable, as of 2026-07-17)
• Transparency International CPI: 37/100, rank 99 (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; follow-up 2019-09; base assessment 2018-09
• 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

• Cuba: 8.0/10 (Very high)
• Venezuela: 7.8/10 (Very high)
• Haiti: 7.6/10 (Very high)
• Bolivia: 6.0/10 (High)
• Nicaragua: 5.6/10 (High)
• Suriname: 5.6/10 (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)