Jordan doing well in efforts to combat money laundering — report

AMMAN – A recently published international report showed that Jordan’s efforts in combating money laundering and terrorism financing are paying off. 

According to the 2016 Basel Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Index, the Kingdom ranked 4th regionally and 35th internationally in terms of the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing. 

Malta, Tunisia and Egypt are the three regional countries that came ahead of Jordan, which scored 4.88 in the index that covers 149 states and assigns each country a score on a scale from 0 (low risk) to 10 (high risk). Jordan is categorised as a medium-risk country (3.3-6.6). 

“I believe that such a good ranking is the result of the Central Bank of Jordan’s strict measures to prevent illegal money in all financial institutions, not only banks, but also at an entity like the bourse,” economist Mazen Irsheid told The Jordan Times on Tuesday, noting that each person who wishes to open an account is asked to give verifications concerning the source of money.

“The accurate and sound application of the measures has contributed to lowering the risk of money laundering and financing terrorism,” he said.

The AML index evaluates a country score according to 14 indicators related to anti-money laundering regulations, financial standards, corruption, political disclosure and rule of law. 

The report showed Iran to have the highest risk of money laundering, followed by Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uganda.  

The Basel Institute on Governance is an independent not-for-profit competence centre working around the world with the public and private sectors to counter corruption and other financial crimes and to improve the quality of governance, according to their website.