Samoa — Country Risk Report

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

High country risk, with AML/CFT effectiveness gaps. Samoa's country risk score is 5.4/10, placing it in the high-risk band. The principal score driver is AML/CFT effectiveness, contributing 3.4 of 5.4 points. Separately, the treatment overlays show that Samoa is not currently FATF grey- or black-listed, and that Samoa is not subject to comprehensive country-wide sanctions and has no direct country-level programme identified. 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 where defined risk triggers are present, and documented justification for accepting the relationship.

At a glance

  • FATF status: Not currently listed (one indicator only; it does not set the overall country risk rating by itself)
  • No direct country-level sanctions programme identified; sanctions remain a legal treatment overlay and applicable lists must still be screened.
  • Governance and institutions: 3.2/10
  • Corruption (CPI): no score
  • Enforcement data: not yet assessed (no RegActions coverage)

Country Risk Score: 5.4/10 (High)

Higher score means higher country risk (global average 5.5). Full information available. Composite score. Limited supporting evidence. Enforcement activity and CPI are context only; FATF listing and sanctions are regulatory overlays except the labelled FATF listing status used where no mutual evaluation exists.

All three underlying risk pillars are available. All three underlying risk pillars are available and weighted using the published formula. Weight sensitivity 5.2–5.6/10.

How this score was calculated

  • AML/CFT effectiveness: 7.6/10 — 45% of this score
  • Technical compliance: 4.5/10 — 20% of this score
  • Governance and institutions: 3.2/10 — 35% of this score

Sanctions treatment: No direct programme identified. FATF treatment: none.

Show the exact calculation

effectiveness 7.6 × 45% + safeguards 4.5 × 20% + governance 3.2 × 35% = 5.4; sanctions and FATF listing are overlays except a labelled FATF listing substitute where no mutual evaluation exists

Principal risk drivers

  • AML/CFT effectiveness: 7.6/10 × 45% = 3.4 points
  • Governance and institutions: 3.2/10 × 35% = 1.1 points
  • Technical compliance: 4.5/10 × 20% = 0.9 points

Mitigating factors

  • Not currently on the FATF grey or black list.
  • No comprehensive country-wide sanctions programme.
  • Comparatively stronger political stability (1.3/10).
  • Risk is concentrated in specific counterparties, sectors and transactions rather than applying uniformly.

Business impact

  • Customer onboarding (Enhanced): Verify ultimate beneficial ownership and control from more than one source.
  • Payments and transactions (Enhanced): Review transaction purpose, counterparties and the full payment 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): Alert on ownership changes, new designations and status changes.

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

Samoa 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: 60/100
  • Regulatory Quality: 53/100
  • Rule of Law: 75/100

Regulators and legal framework

FATF network

FATF network via APG.

Last mutual evaluation: 2015 · report

National regulators

Regulator profiles not yet available on RegActions.

FIU: Egmont Group member (SFIU)

Framework signals

  • FATF listing: Not currently listed
  • International sanctions: no direct country programme identified (legal treatment overlay remains applicable)
  • Corruption (CPI): no score
  • Rule of law (WGI): 3.7/10 risk

Regulatory ecosystem and enforcement visibility

This evidence map is separate from Country Risk v3. It describes official mandates, publication access and RegActions coverage; it does not judge regulatory strength or add points to country risk.

Transparency Index: not scored · Evidence disposition: local-authority-evidence · Mapped official authorities: 3.

Evidence level: Level 1: Identity confirmed. The ladder uses the authority evidenceLevel schema directly and does not infer a level from a URL, site access or RegActions feed count.

  1. 1. Identity confirmed — The authority and its mandate are evidenced by official directory provenance.
  2. 2. Regulatory activity visible — A qualified authority-owned route has provisional dated activity in the first-page scan.
  3. 3. Enforcement visible — A qualified authority-owned enforcement route has provisional dated activity in the first-page scan.
  4. 4. Score eligible — Shown only when the authority evidence schema explicitly records score-eligible; no authority currently does.
How to read activity and enforcement visibility

Only qualified authority-owned routes can support Level 2 or Level 3. External official context and unqualified candidates do not promote the evidence level. Blocked and unavailable sources remain unknown.

Enforcement visibility: No authority is classified enforcement-visible or score-eligible in the authority evidence schema. Enforcement visibility remains unknown or limited to identity/activity evidence; this is not evidence of no enforcement.

Authorities and mandate evidence

Download regulatory ecosystem PDF · CSV · JSON

Sector exposure

  • Banking & payments (Low): No FATF overlay and governance pillar within normal range
  • Trade & export controls (Low): No direct sanctions or FATF call-for-action overlay identified
  • Crypto & virtual assets (Elevated): Effectiveness pillar risk is 7.6/10
  • Real estate & luxury assets (High): Beneficial-ownership subscore is 7.1/10
  • State-linked & procurement (High): Effectiveness pillar risk is 7.6/10

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

Samoa: analysis

Samoa's profile is driven entirely by its governance indicators, with no FATF or sanctions overlay. Political stability is the strongest domain, followed by voice and accountability (strong), corruption (moderate) and rule of law and institutions (moderate). The country sits in the upper third of the World Bank governance indicators, indicating above-average governance relative to global peers. No CPI data is available and no enforcement actions are tracked, which constrains the completeness of the risk picture.

Outlook

Samoa's moderate and stable risk profile reflects its comparatively sound governance position. The absence of FATF listing and sanctions is a positive factor. Without available CPI data or enforcement records, monitoring relies primarily on governance indicators and any future regulatory developments. A change in FATF status would be the most significant near-term risk event.

Key watchpoints

  • Any change in FATF status, which would materially raise scrutiny of Samoa-connected business.
  • Development of enforcement and supervisory data as regulatory frameworks evolve.
  • Rule of law trends, which represent the weakest current governance domain.
  • Availability of CPI data in future reporting cycles to enrich quantitative assessment.

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: SFIU (present, as of 2026-07-17)
  • Beneficial-ownership register: No live register identified in the source (unavailable, as of 2026-08-23)
  • 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 2026-08-24; follow-up 2023-06; base assessment 2015-10
  • World Bank governance indicators: current; data 2024
  • UN, UK, EU and US sanctions regimes: current; data 2026-08-30

Contextual signals are public evidence only and do not change the current country-risk score.

Download evidence PDF · CSV · JSON

Contextual risk evidence (not scored)

These eight evidence families provide context only. They do not change the v3.1 headline score. Unavailable means no reviewed, country-comparable evidence is currently ingested; it does not mean the risk is absent.

  • Organised crime: Not available. No reviewed country-level organised-crime dataset is currently checked in; no risk value is inferred. Candidate sources are research leads only; they have not been ingested as evidence.
  • Fraud and cybercrime: Not available. No reviewed country-level fraud or cybercrime dataset is currently checked in; no risk value is inferred. Candidate sources are research leads only; they have not been ingested as evidence.
  • Terrorism and proliferation financing: Not available. No reviewed country-comparable terrorism/proliferation threat dataset is currently checked in; FATF listing status remains a separate overlay. Candidate sources are research leads only; they have not been ingested as evidence.
  • Trafficking: Not available. No reviewed country-level trafficking dataset is currently checked in; no risk value is inferred. Candidate sources are research leads only; they have not been ingested as evidence.
  • Financial secrecy and offshore exposure: Not available. No reviewed, licence-clean financial-secrecy index is currently checked in; jurisdiction type alone is not used as a proxy. Candidate sources are research leads only; they have not been ingested as evidence.
  • Tax cooperation: Not listed in EU Annex I. Annex I is a political/legal tax-cooperation list, not a general AML, corruption, or country-risk score. Source
  • Political stability and conflict: 87/100 WGI percentile. WGI is an institutional perception indicator, not a conflict event feed or a prediction of future violence. Source
  • Beneficial ownership: Not available. The Open Ownership map is a live-register snapshot and absence means no register was identified in that snapshot, not that no register exists. Candidate sources are research leads only; they have not been ingested as evidence.

Regional peer scores

FAQ

Is Samoa on the FATF grey list?

No. Samoa 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 Samoa low risk. The next FATF plenary review is scheduled for Oct 2026.

Is Samoa 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 Samoa, but individual listed persons may still exist, so firms should continue to screen counterparties against the applicable lists.

What is Samoa's country risk rating?

RegActions rates Samoa at 5.4/10 (High risk), where a higher score means higher country risk. The v3 score combines AML/CFT effectiveness, technical compliance, and governance and institutions. FATF listing and sanctions are shown as overlays and do not add points.

What due diligence applies to Samoa?

Enhanced due diligence where defined risk triggers are present, and documented justification for accepting the relationship. This is decision-support based on Samoa'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)