What is the FATF grey list?

The FATF grey list is the Financial Action Task Force's public list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring. A country on it has known weaknesses in fighting money laundering, terrorist financing or the financing of weapons proliferation, and has committed to fix them on a set timetable while FATF tracks its progress. The list is updated after FATF plenary meetings held in February, June and October.

What is FATF?

The Financial Action Task Force is an intergovernmental policy body set up by the G7 summit in Paris in 1989. One of its first jobs was to write 40 Recommendations, the measures it expects national governments to adopt against money laundering. It has 38 member jurisdictions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and Singapore, and Russia's membership has been suspended since February 24, 2023. FATF has no investigative powers. It sets standards and assesses how well countries follow them.

What is the FATF grey list and blacklist?

The two lists mean different things. A grey-listed country has made a high-level political commitment to work through an action plan with FATF and a regional FATF-style body. FATF says grey listing does not call for enhanced due diligence and that its standards do not envisage cutting off countries wholesale. It also asks that humanitarian aid, charity work and remittances not be disrupted.

The blacklist, officially "high-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action," is more serious. FATF asks members to apply enhanced due diligence and, in the worst cases, countermeasures. As of June 19 2026, North Korea and Iran faced countermeasures, and Myanmar faced enhanced due diligence. FATF said it would consider countermeasures for Myanmar if it made no further progress by October 2026.

Which countries are on the FATF grey list?

FATF's latest list, dated June 19 2026, names 22 jurisdictions: Angola, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Monaco, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Vietnam, the British Virgin Islands and Yemen.

At that plenary, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iraq were added, and Algeria and Namibia were removed after what FATF called significant progress. FATF's next plenary was scheduled for October 28 to 30, 2026, so the list may change soon after this guide's date.

How does the FATF crypto travel rule work?

In 2019 FATF updated Recommendation 15 to cover virtual assets and virtual asset service providers, such as exchanges and custodial wallets. These firms must apply the same checks as banks, including KYC, record keeping and suspicious transaction reports. Countries must license or register them and supervise them.

The travel rule is part of this. A crypto service provider sending a transfer must obtain, hold and securely pass on information about the sender and the recipient. How the United States applies these ideas is covered in crypto anti-money laundering rules, and national approaches are compared in crypto regulation around the world.

Rules differ by country and change often. Check the regulator or a qualified professional for your own situation.