Nauru — Country Risk Report

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

Moderate country risk, with rule-of-law and institutional weakness. Nauru's country risk score is 4.2/10, placing it in the moderate-risk band. The principal driver is weak rule of law and institutions, alongside corruption risk. Nauru is not currently FATF grey- or black-listed. Nauru 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: 3.8/10
  • Corruption (CPI): no score
  • Enforcement data: not yet assessed (no RegActions coverage)

Country Risk Score: 4.2/10 (Moderate)

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: 6.1/10 — 50% of this score
  • Government effectiveness and rule of law: 3.8/10 — 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.

Show the exact calculation

aml 6.1 × 50% + governance 3.8 × 30% + sanctions 0 × 20% = 4.2; final 4.2

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 political stability (1.5/10).
  • 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

Nauru 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: 52/100
  • Regulatory Quality: 47/100
  • Rule of Law: 61/100

Regulators and legal framework

FATF network

FATF network via APG.

Last mutual evaluation: 2024 · 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
  • Corruption (CPI): no score
  • Rule of law (WGI): 4.7/10 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.

Nauru: analysis

Nauru is a small Pacific island state and a member of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG). Its risk picture is governance-derived, with no FATF or sanctions overlay. The governance base is mixed: political stability is strong, accountability is moderate, corruption is moderate and rule of law is moderate. It sits in the upper-middle tier of the World Bank governance indicators, though no CPI data are published. The APG's third-round mutual evaluation, adopted in September 2024, recommended that Nauru urgently review the ML, TF and proliferation-financing implications of its ship registry and establish effective reporting, cooperation and coordination mechanisms among stakeholders. Nauru had historically been a jurisdiction of AML concern in the early 2000s, and the 2024 evaluation frames its residual vulnerabilities around the registry and supervisory capacity rather than the banking sector.

Outlook

Nauru's governance base is stronger on political stability than on rule of law, tempered by the ship-registry concern raised in the September 2024 APG evaluation. The forward picture depends on the pace of APG follow-up remediation, particularly the review of the ship registry, and on supervisory capacity in a very small administration. Firms should apply enhanced due diligence to any Nauru-linked shipping or corporate exposure and monitor APG follow-up reporting.

Key watchpoints

  • APG follow-up reporting on the September 2024 third-round mutual evaluation, especially the ship-registry review.
  • ML, TF and proliferation-financing controls around Nauru's ship registry; apply enhanced due diligence to registry-linked exposure.
  • Supervisory and institutional capacity constraints in a very small administration.
  • Absence of CPI data limits independent corruption benchmarking; supplement with credible third-party indicators.

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: 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: 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 2025-02; base assessment 2024-11
  • 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 Nauru on the FATF grey list?

No. Nauru is not on the FATF grey or black list as of the 19 Jun 2026 plenary. FATF listing is one AML indicator; absence from the list does not by itself make Nauru low risk. The next FATF plenary review is scheduled for Oct 2026.

Is Nauru subject to sanctions?

No country-level programme was identified. In the approved RegActions snapshot, no comprehensive or targeted country-wide sanctions programme was found for Nauru, but individual listed persons may still exist, so firms should continue to screen counterparties against the applicable lists.

What is Nauru's country risk rating?

RegActions rates Nauru at 4.2/10 (Moderate risk), where a higher score means higher country risk. The score combines financial crime controls, government effectiveness and rule of law, and international sanctions.

What due diligence applies to Nauru?

Standard due diligence, with enhanced checks for defined risk triggers. This is decision-support based on Nauru's FATF 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)