Latvia — Country Risk Report

Latvia (Europe • Northern Europe). Risk report as of the 19 Jun 2026 FATF plenary.

Low country risk. Latvia's country risk score is 1.9/10, placing it in the low-risk band. The principal driver is weak corruption. Latvia is not currently FATF grey- or black-listed. Latvia 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: 2.8/10
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 60/100, rank #37 of 182
• Enforcement data: not yet assessed (no RegActions coverage)

Country Risk Score: 1.9/10 (Low)

Higher score means higher country risk (global average 4.6). Full information available. Strong data coverage. 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: 2.2/10 — 50% of this score
• Government effectiveness and rule of law: 2.8/10 — 30% of this score
• International sanctions: 0.0/10 — 20% of this score

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.
• Comparatively stronger voice and accountability (2.3/10).
• 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

Latvia 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: 66/100
• Regulatory Quality: 72/100
• Rule of Law: 76/100

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: 2026 · report

National regulators

Regulator profiles not yet available on RegActions.

FIU: Egmont Group member (FID)

Framework signals

• FATF listing: Not currently listed
• International sanctions: no listed programme identified
• BO register: Public (live since 2017)
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 60/100, rank #37 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.

Latvia: analysis

Latvia's profile reflects moderate governance conditions. Corruption (weighted 35%) and rule of law and institutions (weighted 40%) are the two dominant contributors and both sit in the lower-moderate range. Political stability (strong) and voice and accountability (strong) are considerably stronger and help contain the overall picture. No FATF listing or sanctions apply. The CPI reading provides contextual support for the moderate rather than elevated risk assessment. Latvia sits in the upper tier of the World Bank governance indicators.

Outlook

Latvia has undertaken significant AML and governance reform since a period of heightened international scrutiny that concluded with removal from elevated-risk categorisations. The current moderate score reflects continued, if incomplete, institutional strengthening. EU membership and ECB supervisory oversight provide durable structural anchors. Firms should apply standard moderate-risk due diligence while remaining attentive to legacy vulnerabilities in the financial sector, particularly around non-resident business flows.

Key watchpoints

• Monitor ongoing AML reform implementation and supervisory capacity developments in the Latvian financial sector.
• Assess exposure to non-resident or cross-border business lines that have historically attracted higher financial-crime risk.
• Track annual CPI and WGI updates to detect any reversal of recent governance improvement trends.
• Watch for any future FATF or EU supervisory findings that may affect Latvia's risk categorisation.

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): 60/100 (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: 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: FID (present, as of 2026-07-17)
• Beneficial-ownership register: Public (live since 2017) (present, as of 2026-07-17)
• Transparency International CPI: 60/100, rank 37 (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 2026-02; base assessment 2026-02
• 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

• Belarus: 6.0/10 (High)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: 6.0/10 (High)
• Bulgaria: 6.0/10 (High)
• Monaco: 6.0/10 (High)
• Montenegro: 6.0/10 (High)
• Russia: 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)