Sri Lanka — Country Risk Report

Sri Lanka (Asia Pacific • South Asia). Risk report as of the 19 Jun 2026 FATF plenary.

High country risk, with elevated corruption risk. Sri Lanka's country risk score is 5.2/10, placing it in the high-risk band. The principal driver is weak corruption, alongside rule of law and institutions risk. Sri Lanka is not currently FATF grey- or black-listed. Sri Lanka 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 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: 4.9/10
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 35/100, rank #107 of 182
• Enforcement data: not yet assessed (no RegActions coverage)

Country Risk Score: 5.2/10 (High)

Higher score means higher country risk (global average 4.6). Full information available. Limited supporting information. 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: 7.4/10 — 50% of this score
• Government effectiveness and rule of law: 4.9/10 — 30% of this score
• International sanctions: 0.0/10 — 20% of this score
• The FATF assessment is more than eight 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

• Corruption (WGI) — 6.0/10
• Rule of law & institutions — 5.0/10

Mitigating factors

• Not currently on the FATF grey or black list.
• No comprehensive country-wide sanctions programme.
• Comparatively stronger political stability (4.0/10).
• Risk is concentrated in specific counterparties, sectors and transactions rather than applying uniformly.

Business impact

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

Sri Lanka 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: 46/100
• Regulatory Quality: 50/100
• Rule of Law: 53/100

Regulators and legal framework

FATF network

FATF network via APG.

• Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering

Last mutual evaluation: 2015 · report

National regulators

Regulator profiles not yet available on RegActions.

FIU: Egmont Group member (FIU Sri Lanka)

Framework signals

• FATF listing: Not currently listed
• International sanctions: no listed programme identified
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 35/100, rank #107 of 182
• Rule of law (WGI): 5.0/10 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 (Elevated): Elevated corruption exposure (CPI 35/100)
• State-linked & procurement (Elevated): State-capture exposure (corruption WGI 6.0/10)

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

Sri Lanka: analysis

Sri Lanka's profile is determined solely by its governance indicators, with no FATF or sanctions overlay. Corruption (elevated) is the weakest domain, followed by voice and accountability (elevated), political stability (moderate) and rule of law and institutions (elevated). The CPI reading confirms material corruption concerns. Sri Lanka sits just below the global midpoint on the World Bank governance indicators.

Outlook

Sri Lanka's risk profile reflects governance weaknesses that have been compounded by the economic crisis in recent years. Anti-corruption and rule-of-law reforms will be key determinants of future movement. Any deterioration leading to FATF grey-listing would materially raise the risk profile. Conversely, successful economic stabilisation and institutional strengthening could support gradual governance improvement.

Key watchpoints

• Any change in FATF status, which would materially raise scrutiny of Sri Lanka-connected business.
• Anti-corruption reforms and enforcement capacity as the country navigates post-crisis recovery.
• Rule of law developments, including judicial independence and financial crime legislation.
• Availability of future enforcement data to assess the supervisory framework.

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): 35/100 (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: 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: FIU Sri Lanka (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: 35/100, rank 107 (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 2021-11; base assessment 2015-10
• 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)