Myanmar — Country Risk Report

Myanmar (Asia Pacific • Southeast Asia). Risk report as of the 19 Jun 2026 FATF plenary.

Very high country risk, with governance and transparency concerns. Myanmar's country risk score is 9.0/10, placing it in the very high-risk band. The principal driver is weak voice and accountability, alongside corruption risk. Myanmar is subject to a FATF call for action requiring enhanced due diligence, not countermeasures. Myanmar 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

Enhanced due diligence proportionate to the risks; FATF does not call for countermeasures.

At a glance

  • FATF status: Black list (one indicator only; it does not set the overall country risk rating by itself)
  • Comprehensive country sanctions: none identified. Targeted sanctions exposure: programmes in place, screen applicable lists
  • Government effectiveness and rule of law: 7.5/10
  • Corruption (CPI 2025): 16/100, rank #169 of 182
  • Enforcement data: not yet assessed (no RegActions coverage)

Country Risk Score: 9.0/10 (Very high)

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: 8.0/10 — 50% of this score
  • Government effectiveness and rule of law: 7.5/10 — 30% of this score
  • International sanctions: 5.9/10 — 20% of this score
  • The FATF assessment is more than five years old.
  • FATF call-for-action status means the score cannot be lower than 9.0. This minimum set the final score.
  • sector-wide international sanctions sets a minimum of 6.0, but the calculated score was already higher.
Show the exact calculation

aml 8 × 50% + governance 7.5 × 30% + sanctions 5.9 × 20% = 7.4; fatf-black floor 9 applied, sanctions-sectoral floor 6 non-binding; final 9

Principal risk drivers

  • FATF call for action requiring enhanced due diligence
  • Sectoral sanctions exposure
  • Voice & accountability — 8.0/10
  • Corruption (WGI) — 7.8/10
  • Rule of law & institutions — 7.4/10

Mitigating factors

  • No comprehensive country-wide sanctions programme.
  • Risk is concentrated in specific counterparties, sectors and transactions rather than applying uniformly.

Business impact

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

High-Risk Jurisdiction Subject to a Call for Action. Subject to call for action (enhanced due diligence). Last reviewed 19 Jun 2026; next FATF plenary Oct 2026.

Sanctions: Sectoral

  • EU — sectoral: Restrictive measures in view of the situation in Myanmar/Burma (source)
  • OFAC — targeted: Burma-Related Sanctions (source)
  • UK — sectoral: Myanmar sanctions (source)

Source details

International sanctions by issuing body

  • UN: No
  • EU: Yes (Sectoral)
  • UK: Yes (Sectoral)
  • US: Yes (Targeted)

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: 21/100
  • Regulatory Quality: 32/100
  • Rule of Law: 26/100

Regulators and legal framework

FATF network

FATF network via APG.

Last mutual evaluation: 2018 · report

National regulators

Regulator profiles not yet available on RegActions.

FIU: Not an Egmont Group member

Framework signals

  • FATF listing: Black list
  • International sanctions: sectoral exposure
  • Corruption (CPI 2025): 16/100, rank #169 of 182
  • Rule of law (WGI): 7.4/10 risk

Sector exposure

  • Banking & payments (High): FATF black-list call for action, correspondent lines likely severed
  • Trade & export controls (High): Sectoral sanctions: Restrictive measures in view of the situation in Myanmar/Burma
  • Crypto & virtual assets (High): FATF black-list status signals severe VASP supervision gaps
  • Real estate & luxury assets (High): Severe corruption exposure (CPI 16/100) drives laundering risk
  • State-linked & procurement (High): High state-capture risk (corruption WGI 7.8/10)

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

Myanmar: analysis

Myanmar's profile combines a severely weak governance picture with FATF blacklisting and targeted sanctions. No governance domain carries a a risk rating in the low-to-moderate range. Voice and accountability (severe) and corruption (severe) are the weakest, while political stability (severe) and rule of law and institutions (severe) are only marginally less severe. The CPI reading places Myanmar among the most corruption-affected countries globally. Myanmar sits in the lowest third of the World Bank governance indicators.

Outlook

The outlook for Myanmar is exceptionally adverse in the near term. FATF black-list status requires enhanced due diligence by obliged entities globally, and the existence of multiple targeted sanctions regimes means that financial institutions must apply comprehensive screening. Exit from the black list would require substantial, demonstrated AML/CFT reforms at a time when institutional capacity is severely compromised.

Key watchpoints

  • FATF plenary decisions and any change in black-list status at the next review.
  • Updates to OFAC, EU and UK sanctions programmes, including any designations or expansions.
  • Institutional developments affecting AML/CFT legislative and enforcement capacity.
  • Correspondent banking de-risking decisions and their impact on permissible financial flows.

Assessment currency

  • FATF status: Call for action: enhanced due diligence (as of 19 Jun 2026)
  • Sanctions exposure: Targeted programmes in place (as of Jul 2026)
  • Governance (WGI): Latest dataset incorporated (as of 2024)
  • Corruption (CPI): 16/100 (as of 2025)
  • RegActions assessment: Reviewed (as of 19 Jun 2026)

Public evidence layer

FATF action: enhanced due diligence. FATF calls for enhanced due diligence, not countermeasures, proportionate to the jurisdiction's risks.

Contextual signals (not scored)

  • FATF network membership: FATF regional network: APG (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: No live register identified in the source (unavailable, as of 2026-07-17)
  • Transparency International CPI: 16/100, rank 169 (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 2024-10; 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

FAQ

Is Myanmar on the FATF grey list?

No. Myanmar is not on the FATF grey list. It is on the FATF black list (High-Risk Jurisdictions Subject to a Call for Action), a more severe listing, as of the 19 Jun 2026 plenary. The next FATF plenary review is scheduled for Oct 2026.

Is Myanmar subject to sanctions?

Partly. Myanmar has sectoral sanctions exposure rather than a comprehensive country-wide programme. Firms should screen applicable persons, entities and sectors against the OFAC, UK, EU and UN lists.

What is Myanmar's country risk rating?

RegActions rates Myanmar at 9.0/10 (Very high risk), where a higher score means higher country risk. The score combines financial crime controls, government effectiveness and rule of law, and international sanctions. Transparency International's 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index scores Myanmar 16/100 (rank #169 of 182).

What due diligence applies to Myanmar?

Enhanced due diligence proportionate to the risks; FATF does not call for countermeasures. This is decision-support based on Myanmar's FATF black list status, governance and sanctions signals, and is not a substitute for a firm's own risk assessment.

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)