Sopho Asanidze: Measures Implemented by the National Bank of Georgia Have Positively Contributed to the Improvement of Georgia’s Position in the Anti-Money Laundering Index
The measures implemented by the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) have had a positive impact on the improvement of Georgia’s position in the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Index, according to Sopho Asanidze, Deputy Head of the NBG’s Financial Monitoring and Supervision Department.
She noted that, based on these measures, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Measures (Moneyval) positively assessed the actions taken with respect to virtual assets and virtual asset service providers to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. As a result, Georgia’s technical compliance rating with FATF Recommendation 15 was upgraded from “Partially Compliant” to “Largely Compliant.” According to the Basel Institute on Governance’s 2025 report, Georgia was ranked among the world’s top 40 countries in the Anti-Money Laundering Index (AML Index) and moved from 113th to 140th place in the overall ranking.
The Basel Anti-Money Laundering Index assesses the level of vulnerability to money laundering and related crimes, as well as the capacity to prevent and combat these risks, across 177 jurisdictions, based on five key indicators. These indicators rely on the analysis of data and information obtained from publicly available sources, including the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the United States Department of State, the World Bank, and others.
In the process of assigning the Anti-Money Laundering Index score, particular emphasis is placed on the country’s regulatory framework for anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (AML/CFT/CPF), which constitutes the most important determinant of the rating and accounts for 50 percent of the overall assessment.
The remaining components include corruption and fraud risks, financial transparency, public transparency and accountability, as well as political and legal risks.
