Qatar's measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing

Paris, 31 May 2023 - Qatar has made substantive improvements to its system to combat money laundering and terrorism financing and its technical compliance with FATF requirements is very strong. However, Qatar needs to make some major improvements, in its criminal justice response to terrorist financing.



Qatar is a small but wealthy country with a workforce that is primarily expatriate. The country has low domestic crime rates, but is nevertheless exposed to money laundering risks from smuggling, fraud, drug crimes and corruption. Qatar faces a notable terrorist financing risk with its citizens targeted for fundraising at home and abroad. 

The FATF-MENAFATF mutual evaluation of Qatar highlights that the country has a good understanding of the money laundering and terrorist financing risks it faces but it needs to improve understanding of more complex forms of money laundering and terrorist financing.

Qatar has implemented a risk-based approach to the assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risks and the supervision of the financial sector. Risk-based supervision of the non-financial sector is improving, but at an early stage.

Qatar has made positive and sustained progress in collecting beneficial ownership information for its unified register which is close to completion. However, there are still not sufficient controls to ensure that the information collected remains accurate and up-to-date.

Qatar’s financial intelligence unit is well-equipped and accesses and analyses a wide range of information. However, Qatar’s sophisticated analysis capabilities are not used to their fullest extent to identify money laundering and terrorist financing.

Money laundering investigations and prosecutions remain low and authorities should continue improving their investigations to identify the role Qatar may play in complex or professional schemes.

Qatar has only secured a small number of terrorist financing convictions and prosecutions. There are major inconsistencies between Qatar’s risk profile and the type and extent of terrorist financing activity prosecuted and convicted.

Qatar is effectively confiscating large sums, including proceeds and instrumentalities of crime, and property of equivalent value. Qatar prioritises international co-operation but further progress is necessary to improve Qatar’s overall system for mutual legal assistance and extradition.

Qatar has a robust framework to implement targeted financial sanctions related to terrorist financing and used this to seize a large amount of assets, but the country needs to focus more on its implementation of proliferation financing sanctions.

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