New Zealand — Country Risk Report

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

Low country risk. New Zealand's country risk score is 2.4/10, placing it in the low-risk band. The principal driver is weak rule of law and institutions. New Zealand is not currently FATF grey- or black-listed. New Zealand 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: 1.4/10
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 81/100, rank #4 of 182
• Enforcement: 99 actions from 1 regulator

Country Risk Score: 2.4/10 (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: 3.9/10 — 50% of this score
• Government effectiveness and rule of law: 1.4/10 — 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

• 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 corruption (1.3/10).
• 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

New Zealand 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: 87/100
• Regulatory Quality: 84/100
• Rule of Law: 86/100

Enforcement activity

RegActions tracks 99 enforcement actions from 1 regulator in New Zealand.

• FMANZ — Financial Markets Authority (99 actions, 2015-2026)

The composite RegActions Country Risk Score does not use enforcement volume.

Regulators and legal framework

FATF network

FATF member.

• Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering

Last mutual evaluation: 2021 · report

National regulators

• FMANZ — Financial Markets Authority (99 actions, 2015-2026)

FIU: Egmont Group member (FIU-NZ)

Framework signals

• FATF listing: Not currently listed
• International sanctions: no listed programme identified
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 81/100, rank #4 of 182
• Rule of law (WGI): 1.4/10 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.

New Zealand: analysis

New Zealand's profile is determined entirely by a robust governance picture. Corruption (strong) is the strongest domain, followed by political stability (strong), voice and accountability (strong) and rule of law and institutions (strong). No FATF or sanctions overlay applies. The CPI reading places New Zealand amongst the world's most transparent and well-governed countries. It sits in the upper decile of the World Bank governance indicators and consistently outperforms regional and global peers.

Outlook

New Zealand's risk profile is stable and among the most favourable globally. The sustained enforcement record of the Financial Markets Authority indicates that supervisory standards are actively maintained. No foreseeable structural changes are expected to alter the country's governance position materially. Firms should monitor any emerging AML/CFT legislative developments, although the baseline risk remains very low.

Key watchpoints

• Any changes to AML/CFT legislation or supervisory scope by the Financial Markets Authority.
• Enforcement trends and whether the pace of regulatory actions increases or decreases.
• New Zealand's continued absence from the FATF grey list.
• Macroeconomic or political developments that could affect institutional stability, though risks are assessed as low.

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): 81/100 (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: FIU-NZ (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: 81/100, rank 4 (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 2024-07; base assessment 2021-04
• 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

• Myanmar: 9.0/10 (Very high)
• North Korea: 9.0/10 (Very high)
• Afghanistan: 7.0/10 (Very high)
• China: 6.0/10 (High)
• Hong Kong: 6.0/10 (High)
• Laos: 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)