Nicaragua

New Documents

GAFILAT Re-Rates Nicaragua’s AML/CTF Regime in Fifth Enhanced Follow-Up Report

The Financial Action Task Force of Latin America issued a fifth enhanced follow-up report on the anti-money laundering and counterterrorist financing framework of Nicaragua, highlighting re-ratings on the country’s compliance with three Financial Action Task Force Recommendations.

January 26, 2021

GAFILAT Issues Enhanced Follow-Up Report for Nicaragua

The Financial Action Task Force of Latin America issued a fourth follow-up report for Nicaragua, which re-rates the jurisdiction on Technical Recommendations 8, 22, 23 and 28.

March 3, 2020

GAFILAT Publishes Second Enhanced Follow-Up of Nicaragua

January 24, 2019

GAFILAT: Nicaragua Judged to Have a Low Effectiveness Rating in Three Categories

October 1, 2017

Nicaragua Establishes Freezing Mechanisms for Terrorist Assets (in Spanish)

March 31, 2014

News

Weekly Roundup: BNP Allegedly Laundered Gabonese Funds, German Report Blames EY’s Lax Scrutiny of Wirecard, and More

Goldman Sachs invests in AML regtech, Crown Resorts executives disregarded AML concerns, and more, in the weekly roundup.

May 21, 2021

Midweek Roundup: NAB Self-Reports AML Breaches, Australia Probes Westpac’s Officials, and More

SEB hit by joint Swedish-Baltic AML probe, Finland fines S-Pankki Oy for compliance failures, and more, in the midweek roundup.

December 18, 2019

Weekly Roundup: New York Receives Trump Loan Records from Deutsche Bank, EU Regulator to Audit Belgian Lender, and More

April 26, 2019

Weekly Roundup: New York Scales Back Cybersecurity Proposal, Bangladesh Suspects IT Employees Enabled Central Bank Heist, and More

December 29, 2016

Weekly Roundup: Malaysia Vows Actions on 1MDB, Nicaragua Restricts Evangelical Groups Linked to Laundering, and More

August 19, 2016

Enforcement Actions

0 Items Found

Key Documents

Nicaragua Bans Drug-Related Money Laundering, Imposes CDD Rules (in Spanish)

April 15, 1999

Nicaragua Establishes Its Financial Intelligence Unit (in Spanish)

June 22, 2012

Nicaragua Establishes Freezing Mechanisms for Terrorist Assets (in Spanish)

March 31, 2014

Nicaragua Increases Coordination Work of FIU with Other Government Agencies (in Spanish)

December 23, 2010

Important Facts

The U.S. State Department identifies Nicaragua as a major money laundering country, especially since the jurisdiction is transit nation for illegal narcotics. Money laundering methodologies facilitate government corruption and international organized crime groups’ trafficking of illegal narcotics, mostly cocaine. Other methods of money laundering include traditional forms such as real estate transactions, sale of vehicles, livestock farming, money transfers, lending, and serial small transactions. Risks of illicit finance are heightened due to: informal “cash and carry” networks that deliver remittances from abroad; market vendors that deal in cash; the existence of multiple, nontransparent, quasi-public businesses that manage large cash transactions and have ties to the ruling party, and the proliferation of shell companies. Money laundering is additionally prevalent due to the Nicaraguan government's unwillingness to investigate sanctioned individuals and its decision to harbor high-profile former foreign officials accused of corruption and financial crimes. Nicaragua remained a transit country for narcotics and money laundering despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, Illegal trafficking and money laundering instances escalated in 2020 due to U.S. sanctions on Ivan Acosta, the Minister of Finance and Public Credit for supporting human rights violations, as well as Caja Rural National Savings and Credit Cooperative.

Source: 2021 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR)

Rankings

FATF i | 2013 Methodology

Technical	Effectiveness
Compliant : 7	High : 0
Largely Compliant : 30	Substantial : 1
Partially Compliant : 2	Moderate : 7
Non-Compliant : 1	Low : 3

Nicaragua's technical compliance was re-rated in a January 2021 follow-up report

BASEL i

Rank : 16/141

Score : 6.78/10

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL i

Rank : 161/180

Score : 22/100

Tax Justice Network i

Rank : N/A

Score : N/A