National Risk Assessments
National Risk Assessments form the cornerstone of a country’s anti-money laundering, counterterrorist financing, and proliferation financing efforts.
Central to implementing a risk-based approach to anti-financial crime controls is identifying, assessing and understanding the money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing risks that a country faces. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) requires that all jurisdictions carry out a risk assessment and identify mitigating actions; this is known as a National Risk Assessment (NRA).
The NRA should inform all aspects of a country’s efforts in the fight against financial crime, including legislation, supervisory priorities, and resourcing.
We have extensive experience of supporting countries as they carry out their NRAs, drawing on our expert insight and decade of research into anti-money laundering, counterterrorist financing and proliferation financing risks. We also provide support to jurisdictions planning to conduct a sectoral virtual asset risk assessment.
Project team
Tom Keatinge
Director, CFS
Centre for Finance and Security
Kathryn Westmore
Senior Research Fellow
Centre for Finance and Security
Fatima Alsancak
CPF Technical Assistance Programme Research Fellow
Centre for Finance and Security
Wojciech Pawlus
Outreach and Implementation Manager
Centre for Finance and Security
Aims and objectives
Our work in relation to NRAs falls into three categories:
- Developing practical and actionable guidance to support countries in carrying out their NRAs. This is based on the expertise we have gained through involvement with several countries’ NRA processes and our relevant research. We also help countries in implementing guidance and best practices into their NRA methodology.
- Engaging with countries to review the outputs of their NRA methodology, providing an essential challenge function to ensure that countries have considered all aspects of their risk profile.
- Supporting civil society and other relevant actors in increasing their understanding of the NRA process, encouraging the involvement of the third sector in a country’s NRA, and providing useful resources to support engagement with an NRA.