Portugal is among the top countries of the world that best prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.
In a study from the Basle Institute, Portugal lies 12th on the list, ahead of both the UK and Germany.
The annual survey lists 152 counties according to their ability to assess money laundering risks and is published by the Basel Institute of Governance, an independent body based in Switzerland.
Within Europe, Luxembourg is the worst performer, followed by Greece and, certainly much to Angela Merkel’s embarrassment – Germany.
The Basel Index does not assess the amount or number of illicit transactions but is designed to assess the risk of money laundering by indicating the vulnerability of a country to money laundering and terrorism financing based on publicly available indicators such as from Transparency International, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.
The top five cleaner-than-clean countries where money launderers fear to tread are Finland, followed by Estonia, Slovenia, Lithuania and New Zealand.
The data for the 2015 Basel Index illustrates that the risk of money laundering/terrorism financing is particularly high in low-income countries with inadequate anti-money laundering legislation and structural and functional vulnerabilities such as high rates of perceived corruption, a lack of judicial strength and lack of public and financial transparency.
Portugal’s 12th place put it ahead of many other European countries, including Denmark (15th), Belgium (23rd), the UK (28th), France (29th) and Spain (45th).
For the full list as a .pdf file, see:
basel_aml_index_2015_media_release_final.pdf
