Isle of Man — Country Risk Report

Isle of Man (Offshore / IFC • Crown Dependency). Risk report as of the 19 Jun 2026 FATF plenary.

Moderate country risk. Isle of Man's country risk score is 3.9/10, placing it in the moderate-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 its governance profile. Isle of Man is not currently FATF grey- or black-listed. Isle of Man 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: information unavailable
• Corruption (CPI): no score
• Enforcement: 21 actions from 1 regulator

Country Risk Score: 3.9/10 (Moderate)

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: 5.4/10 — 71% of this score
• Government effectiveness and rule of law: information unavailable — 0% of this score
• International sanctions: 0.0/10 — 29% of this score
• Government effectiveness and rule of law information is unavailable.
• The FATF assessment is more than eight 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

• Government effectiveness and rule of law drive the score; no FATF listing or direct country-level sanctions were identified

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 (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

Isle of Man 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: no data
• Regulatory Quality: no data
• Rule of Law: no data

Enforcement activity

RegActions tracks 21 enforcement actions from 1 regulator in Isle of Man.

• IOMFSA — Isle of Man Financial Services Authority (21 actions, 2019-2025)

The composite RegActions Country Risk Score does not use enforcement volume.

Regulators and legal framework

FATF network

FATF network via MONEYVAL.

• Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures (MONEYVAL)

Last mutual evaluation: 2016 · report

National regulators

• IOMFSA — Isle of Man Financial Services Authority (21 actions, 2019-2025)

FIU: Egmont Group member (FIU-IOM)

Framework signals

• FATF listing: Not currently listed
• International sanctions: no listed programme identified
• BO register: Restricted (live since 2017)
• Corruption (CPI): no score
• Rule of law (WGI): no data

Sector exposure

• Banking & payments (Review): Rule-of-law evidence unavailable; no low-exposure conclusion
• Trade & export controls (Low): No sanctions programme or FATF black-list constraint identified
• Crypto & virtual assets (Review): Accountability evidence unavailable; no low-exposure conclusion
• Real estate & luxury assets (Review): Corruption-control evidence unavailable; no low-exposure conclusion
• State-linked & procurement (Review): Governance evidence incomplete; no low-exposure conclusion

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

Isle of Man: analysis

The Isle of Man is a self-governing Crown Dependency and a long-established financial, insurance and corporate-services centre. World Bank WGI governance domain data are not published for it, so its headline scoring rests on a limited evidence base; the data gap is not itself a positive or negative assessment. No CPI data or governance percentile are available. The jurisdiction is assessed by MONEYVAL: its fifth-round mutual evaluation report was adopted in December 2016, placing the Isle of Man in enhanced follow-up, and successive follow-up reports through 2020 re-rated it upward on several Recommendations. MONEYVAL has confirmed that the Isle of Man's sixth-round on-site evaluation visit will take place in October 2026. No FATF or sanctions escalators apply.

Outlook

The Isle of Man's forward risk picture is dominated by the sixth-round MONEYVAL evaluation, with the on-site visit scheduled for October 2026 and a report expected thereafter; the outcome will be the single most important indicator of its AML/CFT standing. Given the limited governance evidence base, its low-risk characterisation rests on its Crown Dependency status and prior follow-up record. Beneficial ownership controls and the supervision of complex structures remain the key ongoing considerations.

Key watchpoints

• MONEYVAL sixth-round mutual evaluation (on-site October 2026) and the subsequent report and ratings.
• Beneficial ownership transparency and the supervision of trust and corporate-services providers.
• Effectiveness of AML/CFT supervision across the insurance, banking and e-gaming sectors.
• Absence of WGI, CPI and percentile data makes independent risk calibration difficult; supplement with regulatory guidance and third-party assessments.

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): Not available (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: MONEYVAL (present, as of 2026-07)
• EU non-cooperative tax jurisdictions: Not listed in Annex I (absent, as of 2026-02-17)
• Egmont Group FIU: FIU-IOM (present, as of 2026-07-17)
• Beneficial-ownership register: Restricted (live since 2017) (present, as of 2026-07-17)
• Transparency International CPI: No CPI result available (unavailable, 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 2022-12; base assessment 2016-12
• 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

• British Virgin Islands: 6.0/10 (High)
• Sint Maarten: 5.6/10 (High)
• Curaçao: 4.5/10 (Moderate)
• Turks and Caicos Islands: 4.5/10 (Moderate)
• Barbados: 4.4/10 (Moderate)
• Antigua and Barbuda: 4.2/10 (Moderate)

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)