Israel — Country Risk Report

Israel (Middle East • Western Asia). Risk report as of the 19 Jun 2026 FATF plenary.

Low country risk, with political-instability risk. Israel's country risk score is 2.6/10, placing it in the low-risk band. The principal driver is weak political stability. Israel is not currently FATF grey- or black-listed. Israel is not subject to comprehensive country-wide sanctions.

Recommended treatment

Standard 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: possible, screen applicable persons, entities and sectors
• Government effectiveness and rule of law: 3.5/10
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 62/100, rank #35 of 182
• Enforcement data: not yet assessed (no RegActions coverage)

Country Risk Score: 2.6/10 (Low)

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: 3.0/10 — 50% of this score
• Government effectiveness and rule of law: 3.5/10 — 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

• Political stability — 5.2/10

Mitigating factors

• Not currently on the FATF grey or black list.
• No comprehensive country-wide sanctions programme.
• Comparatively stronger rule of law and institutions (2.9/10).
• Overall governance and institutional quality are relatively strong.

Business impact

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

Israel 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: 74/100
• Regulatory Quality: 72/100
• Rule of Law: 67/100

Regulators and legal framework

FATF network

FATF member.

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

Last mutual evaluation: 2018 · report

National regulators

Regulator profiles not yet available on RegActions.

FIU: Egmont Group member (IMPA)

Framework signals

• FATF listing: Not currently listed
• International sanctions: no listed programme identified
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 62/100, rank #35 of 182
• Rule of law (WGI): 2.9/10 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 (Low): Corruption indicators within normal range for high-value assets
• 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.

Israel: analysis

Israel's profile is driven entirely by its governance indicators, with no FATF or sanctions overlay. Political stability (elevated) is the clear risk outlier, significantly higher than the other three domains, reflecting the ongoing regional security situation and its impact on political governance. Corruption (moderate) and voice and accountability (moderate) are moderate, consistent with a comparatively clean CPI reading and an upper-tier standing on the World Bank governance indicators. Rule of law and institutions (strong) is the strongest domain, supporting confidence in the legal and regulatory framework. Israel is not on the FATF grey or black list and faces no sanctions exposure.

Outlook

Israel's risk profile is primarily shaped by the trajectory of the regional security and political situation, which directly affects the political stability domain. The legal and institutional framework remains comparatively robust. Firms should monitor political stability developments and their potential spillover effects on regulatory capacity and counterparty risk.

Key watchpoints

• Political stability developments and their effect on institutional capacity and the operating environment.
• Corruption indicators in politically sensitive sectors, including defence procurement and public contracting.
• Any future FATF assessment outcomes or changes to the current non-listed status.
• Counterparty and correspondent banking exposure to parties with connections to the regional conflict environment.

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): 62/100 (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: Direct FATF member (present, as of 2026-07)
• EU non-cooperative tax jurisdictions: Not listed in Annex I (absent, as of 2026-02-17)
• Egmont Group FIU: IMPA (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: 62/100, rank 35 (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 2022-05; base assessment 2018-12
• 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

• Iran: 9.0/10 (Very high)
• Syria: 7.0/10 (Very high)
• Yemen: 7.0/10 (Very high)
• Lebanon: 6.1/10 (High)
• Iraq: 6.0/10 (High)
• Kuwait: 6.0/10 (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)