Taiwan — Country Risk Report

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

Low country risk. Taiwan's country risk score is 2.7/10, placing it in the low-risk band. The principal driver is weak corruption. Taiwan is not currently FATF grey- or black-listed. Taiwan 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: 2.3/10
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 68/100, rank #24 of 182
• Enforcement: 924 actions from 1 regulator

Country Risk Score: 2.7/10 (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: 4.0/10 — 50% of this score
• Government effectiveness and rule of law: 2.3/10 — 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 political stability (1.8/10).
• 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

Taiwan 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: 80/100
• Regulatory Quality: 75/100
• Rule of Law: 79/100

Enforcement activity

RegActions tracks 924 enforcement actions from 1 regulator in Taiwan.

• TWFSC — Financial Supervisory Commission (924 actions, 2012-2026)

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

Regulators and legal framework

FATF network

FATF network via APG.

• Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering

Last mutual evaluation: 2019 · report

National regulators

• TWFSC — Financial Supervisory Commission (924 actions, 2012-2026)

FIU: Egmont Group member (AMLD)

Framework signals

• FATF listing: Not currently listed
• International sanctions: no listed programme identified
• Corruption (CPI 2025): 68/100, rank #24 of 182
• Rule of law (WGI): 2.2/10 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.

Taiwan: analysis

Taiwan's profile is driven by consistently low governance risk across all domains. Rule of law and institutions is the strongest contributor, with a low risk rating, while corruption is strong and voice and accountability is strong. Political stability is the lowest risk domain. Taiwan carries no FATF listing and no sanctions exposure. The CPI ranking out of 179 countries in 2024 corroborates the governance picture. No tracked enforcement actions are recorded in the dataset.

Outlook

Taiwan's governance fundamentals are well established, and the absence of any FATF or sanctions designation supports a stable risk outlook. Firms should expect the country to remain low-risk at the next FATF plenary in October 2026. Sustained institutional quality and anti-corruption performance are the primary factors to watch.

Key watchpoints

• Monitor any changes to FATF listing status at the October 2026 plenary.
• Track developments in Taiwan's cross-strait political environment, which could affect the political stability domain.
• Review CPI and WGI updates annually to confirm continued low-risk positioning.
• Watch for any new regulatory enforcement actions or AML legislative changes.

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): 68/100 (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: AMLD (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: 68/100, rank 24 (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 2019-10; base assessment 2019-10
• 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

• 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)