Montserrat — Country Risk Report

Montserrat (Offshore / IFC • British Overseas Territory). Risk report as of the 19 Jun 2026 FATF plenary.

Moderate country risk. Montserrat'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. Montserrat is not currently FATF grey- or black-listed. Montserrat 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 data: not yet assessed (no RegActions coverage)

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.

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

Montserrat 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

Regulators and legal framework

FATF network

FATF network via CFATF.

• Caribbean Financial Action Task Force

Last mutual evaluation: 2025 · report

National regulators

Regulator profiles not yet available on RegActions.

FIU: Not an Egmont Group member

Framework signals

• FATF listing: Not currently listed
• International sanctions: no listed programme identified
• BO register: Restricted (live since 2024)
• 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.

Montserrat: analysis

Montserrat is a small British Overseas Territory in the Eastern Caribbean and a member of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF). World Bank WGI governance domain data are not published for Montserrat, 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 most significant recent development is its CFATF fourth-round mutual evaluation: the on-site visit took place in April 2024, the report was adopted at the CFATF plenary in December 2024, and the territory's government reported a favourable outcome across the technical compliance and effectiveness assessments. No FATF or sanctions escalators apply. In the absence of quantified governance data, firms should treat Montserrat's risk as evidence-limited and rely on the CFATF evaluation and third-party assessments.

Outlook

Montserrat's forward risk picture rests on its completed CFATF fourth-round mutual evaluation and the associated follow-up process, given the limited governance evidence base. The effectiveness of AML/CFT supervision for its small financial and corporate-services sector, and beneficial ownership transparency, are the primary monitoring considerations. Any future WGI data availability would allow a modelled risk picture to be constructed.

Key watchpoints

• Publication of Montserrat's full CFATF fourth-round mutual evaluation report and any subsequent follow-up reporting.
• Beneficial ownership transparency for Montserrat companies and structures.
• Effectiveness of AML/CFT supervision across the financial and corporate-services sectors.
• Absence of WGI, CPI and percentile data makes independent risk calibration difficult; supplement with the CFATF evaluation 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: CFATF (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: Restricted (live since 2024) (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 2025-01; base assessment 2025-01
• World Bank governance indicators: current; data 2024
• UN, UK, EU and US sanctions regimes: current; data 2026-08-16

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)