Türkiye has strengthened its fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, but more is needed when it comes to tracing cross-border criminal proceeds and recovering illicit assets, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said in its latest assessment.
The watchdog said on Wednesday that Türkiye had improved interagency coordination, financial intelligence and international cooperation since its previous comprehensive review in 2019, while money-laundering investigations, prosecutions and convictions had risen significantly.
The FATF's mutual evaluation of Türkiye assessed the effectiveness of the country’s measures against money laundering, countering terrorist financing and proliferation financing and the level of compliance with the FATF Recommendations, at the time of its on-site visit in November 2025.
"The assessment found that Türkiye has strengthened its defenses against illicit finance, including improving the use of financial intelligence and international cooperation for pursuing money laundering, terrorist financing and predicate offenses," the organization said.
"However, Türkiye should further prioritize money laundering investigations and prosecutions related to certain high-risk predicate offenses, and strengthen its capacity to identify, trace and recover criminal assets located abroad," it added.
Türkiye received no "non-compliant" ratings across FATF's 40 technical recommendations, although it was rated "partially compliant" on two, and the watchdog said shortcomings remained in complex high-risk cases and in identifying and recovering criminal assets abroad.
Commenting on the evaluation, published on Sept. 23, the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), operating under the Treasury and Finance Ministry, welcomed the findings and also said that effectively combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism "will continue to be among our main priorities."
"These results constitute an important indicator of the level our country has reached and show that, through legislative efforts, institutional arrangements, and practices, our country is steadily strengthening its capacity in combating money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," it said.
It also noted that "it has also been clearly certified by the FATF that our country does not have a strategic deficiency in the areas of anti-money laundering, related predicate offenses, combating the financing of terrorism, or combating the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and therefore there is no risk of being on the grey list."
The watchdog removed Türkiye from its "grey list" in 2024.
