Iran
Overview
Iran’s AML/CFT framework is anchored in the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2008, subsequent amendments including the 2018 reform, the Combating the Financing of Terrorism Act and current executive by-laws. The 2025 AML executive by-law is treated as a current implementing instrument rather than a replacement for the underlying statutes.
CDD, beneficial-owner identification and legal-person transparency duties are mapped through the AML Act and current executive by-law. FATF deficiencies concerning transparency and implementation are retained separately from the existence of statutory obligations.
The Financial Intelligence Center receives, analyses and disseminates financial intelligence under the AML Act and implementing by-law. Reporting entities, supervisory authorities and judicial/law-enforcement channels are distinguished in the evidence chain.
Compliance Calendar2
Requirement
Suspicious transaction / activity reporting
Authority / Report toFinancial Intelligence Center (FIC), Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance
Deadline / triggerReport to the Financial Intelligence Center under the applicable law and by-law. The exact universal filing clock is not asserted in mapped sources.
Requirement
- Subject scope
- Persons and institutions subject to Iran’s AML legislation and executive rules.
- Trigger
- Knowledge or suspicion meeting the reporting standard under the AML Act / executive by-law.
- Filing channel
- FIC-prescribed reporting process.
Impact
- Consequences of non-compliance
- Violations may attract administrative or criminal consequences under Iranian AML/CFT law.
- Enforcement authority
- Financial Intelligence Center / competent supervisory authority
- Operational impact
- Keep internal case escalation tied to current FIC requirements and preserve the evidence used to reach suspicion.
Requirement
Risk-based AML/CFT controls, CDD and recordkeeping
Authority / Report toFinancial Intelligence Center / competent supervisor
Deadline / triggerMaintain CDD, monitoring, governance and records for the period required by the applicable law / sector rule; No single universal retention period is shown where rules differ by record type or sector.
Requirement
- Subject scope
- Financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses/professions within the applicable national AML/CFT perimeter.
- Trigger
- Continuous while carrying on covered business; enhanced measures apply when higher-risk customers, products, transactions or relationships are identified.
- Filing channel
- Internal AML programme, customer/beneficial-owner records, transaction monitoring, escalation and retained evidence; supervisory submissions apply when separately required.
Impact
- Consequences of non-compliance
- Control or recordkeeping failures can attract supervisory, administrative or criminal consequences under the applicable AML/CFT framework.
- Enforcement authority
- Financial Intelligence Center / competent supervisor
- Operational impact
- Keep the firm’s control library mapped to the exact sector rule and keep evidence of CDD, monitoring, escalation and record retention.
Authorities & FIU1
FATF Assessment
Measures how fully the jurisdiction has implemented FATF’s technical requirements. It does not measure practical effectiveness.
Measures whether the AML/CFT system achieves its intended results in practice. No jurisdiction-specific effectiveness ratings are asserted where the consolidated dataset has no standalone assessment row.
Regulatory Timeline37
The Cabinet approved the current Executive By-Law on Combating and Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Offences on 19 October 2025.
FATF revised Recommendation 16 to standardise payment information and strengthen fraud/error controls in cross-border payments.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗FATF amended Recommendation 1 and related interpretive material to strengthen proportionality and simplified measures under the risk-based approach.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗FATF revised Recommendations 4, 30, 31 and 38 and related interpretive material to make asset recovery a stronger operational priority, expand tools to trace and confiscate criminal property and improve domestic and international cooperation.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗At its February 2023 Plenary FATF revised Recommendation 25 and its Interpretive Note to strengthen transparency and beneficial-ownership requirements for trusts and similar legal arrangements, complementing the 2022 strengthening of Recommendation 24 for legal persons.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗FATF strengthened Recommendation 24 on beneficial ownership transparency for legal persons.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗FATF amended Recommendations 1 and 2 and their Interpretive Notes so countries and covered private-sector entities must identify, assess and mitigate risks of breaches, non-implementation or evasion of proliferation-related targeted financial sanctions.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗The Basel Committee revised its ML/TF risk-management guidelines to add principles for information exchange and cooperation between prudential and AML/CFT supervisors in authorisation, ongoing supervision and enforcement.
A Basel supervisory publication does not become domestic law merely because it is GLOBAL. National adoption, supervisory use or incorporation must be evidenced by a LOCAL milestone or source.
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision ↗FATF fully lifted the suspension of counter-measures against Iran and again called for effective counter-measures under Recommendation 19.
FATF adopted detailed implementation requirements for virtual assets and VASPs in June 2019, including the application of wire-transfer information requirements commonly described as the Travel Rule. This operationalised the virtual-asset perimeter introduced through the 2018 Recommendation 15 revision.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗In October 2018 FATF revised Recommendation 15 and added the definitions of virtual asset and virtual asset service provider, formally bringing virtual-asset activity into the global AML/CFT standards architecture. Detailed implementation requirements followed in 2019.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗Iran amended the AML Act in 2018, strengthening the statutory architecture later implemented through updated executive by-laws.
FATF suspended counter-measures against Iran for twelve months while monitoring implementation of Iran’s AML/CFT Action Plan.
The Basel Committee issued Sound management of risks related to money laundering and financing of terrorism, superseding its 2001 CDD and 2004 consolidated KYC papers and integrating ML/TF risk management with prudential supervisory expectations.
A Basel supervisory publication does not become domestic law merely because it is GLOBAL. National adoption, supervisory use or incorporation must be evidenced by a LOCAL milestone or source.
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision ↗FATF adopted a consolidated revised set of 40 Recommendations integrating AML, CFT and proliferation-financing safeguards.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗FATF called on members and other jurisdictions to apply effective counter-measures to ML/FT risks emanating from Iran.
Official FIC materials trace the national financial-intelligence function to Iranian year 1388 (2009–2010); the Deep layer records 2009 as the institutional origin year while avoiding a fabricated exact Gregorian date.
FATF publicly identified AML/CFT risks or deficiencies concerning Iran in its 28 February 2008 statement.
Iran’s statutory AML framework is anchored in the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2008, establishing core preventive, reporting and enforcement obligations.
Resolution 1737 imposed binding measures concerning Iran’s proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities, including an asset freeze on designated individuals and entities. Together with the DPRK regime, it forms a foundational UN counter-proliferation targeted-financial-sanctions architecture.
UN Members agree to accept and carry out Security Council decisions. This current Charter relationship is not proof of the jurisdiction’s domestic implementation, nor a claim about its membership status on the historical event date.
UN Charter · Article 25 ↗Following the DPRK nuclear test, Resolution 1718 imposed binding sanctions including an asset freeze on designated persons and entities connected to the nuclear programme. It became a central UN targeted-financial-sanctions pillar for counter-proliferation financing.
UN Members agree to accept and carry out Security Council decisions. This current Charter relationship is not proof of the jurisdiction’s domestic implementation, nor a claim about its membership status on the historical event date.
UN Charter · Article 25 ↗FATF added a ninth Special Recommendation addressing cash couriers and cross-border movement of currency.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗Resolution 1540 requires all States to adopt and enforce laws and domestic controls to prevent non-State actors from acquiring or using weapons of mass destruction and related materials. It forms a binding global legal pillar of the proliferation-financing control environment later reflected in FATF CPF standards.
UN Members agree to accept and carry out Security Council decisions. This current Charter relationship is not proof of the jurisdiction’s domestic implementation, nor a claim about its membership status on the historical event date.
UN Charter · Article 25 ↗The UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention against Corruption on 31 October 2003. UNCAC addresses prevention of money laundering, laundering of corruption proceeds, confiscation and a dedicated asset-recovery framework; the Convention entered into force globally on 14 December 2005.
Current UN depositary relationship to 2003 UN Convention against Corruption. This is not a claim that the jurisdiction was already a Party on the GLOBAL event date; the national accession/ratification date is a separate LOCAL/STATUS fact.
UN Treaty Collection ↗FATF comprehensively revised its AML/CFT Recommendations, strengthening preventive measures and extending coverage.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗The Basel Committee issued Customer due diligence for banks, setting minimum supervisory expectations for customer acceptance, identification, ongoing monitoring and risk management. It became an influential global banking KYC/CDD benchmark and was later reflected in FATF standards.
A Basel supervisory publication does not become domestic law merely because it is GLOBAL. National adoption, supervisory use or incorporation must be evidenced by a LOCAL milestone or source.
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision ↗FATF expanded its standards to terrorist financing through eight Special Recommendations.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗Resolution 1373 requires all States to prevent and suppress terrorist financing, criminalise the provision or collection of funds for terrorist acts, freeze terrorist assets without delay and prohibit making funds or financial services available to terrorists and related entities.
UN Members agree to accept and carry out Security Council decisions. This current Charter relationship is not proof of the jurisdiction’s domestic implementation, nor a claim about its membership status on the historical event date.
UN Charter · Article 25 ↗The Palermo Convention was adopted on 15 November 2000 and broadened the international money-laundering framework beyond drug proceeds through criminalisation and preventive measures tied to transnational organised crime. It entered into force globally on 29 September 2003.
Current UN depositary relationship to 2000 Palermo Convention. This is not a claim that the jurisdiction was already a Party on the GLOBAL event date; the national accession/ratification date is a separate LOCAL/STATUS fact.
UN Treaty Collection ↗The UN General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism on 9 December 1999, creating the treaty framework for criminalising terrorist financing and international cooperation. It entered into force globally on 10 April 2002.
Current UN depositary relationship to 1999 Terrorist Financing Convention. This is not a claim that the jurisdiction was already a Party on the GLOBAL event date; the national accession/ratification date is a separate LOCAL/STATUS fact.
UN Treaty Collection ↗Resolution 1267 imposed an assets freeze and other targeted sanctions in the Taliban context and created the Security Council committee that became the foundation of the UN 1267 sanctions architecture. It is a key global precursor to modern terrorist-financing targeted financial sanctions.
UN Members agree to accept and carry out Security Council decisions. This current Charter relationship is not proof of the jurisdiction’s domestic implementation, nor a claim about its membership status on the historical event date.
UN Charter · Article 25 ↗FATF revised the Forty Recommendations to reflect evolving money-laundering methods and countermeasures.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗Representatives of 13 financial intelligence units met in Brussels on 9 June 1995 and founded what became the Egmont Group. The milestone created the operational global network for FIU-to-FIU cooperation and exchange of financial intelligence.
No Egmont member FIU is recorded in the current profile. The 1995 GLOBAL milestone is therefore context, not a membership claim.
Egmont Group · Member FIUs ↗FATF issued its original Forty Recommendations, establishing the first global AML standard framework.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗The G7 established FATF in 1989 to examine and develop measures to combat money laundering. FATF became the central global standard-setting body whose recommendations are implemented through national and regional AML/CFT frameworks.
No current direct FATF or regional assessment relationship is recorded in this profile. The GLOBAL milestone is shown only as international context.
FATF Global Network ↗The Vienna Convention was adopted on 20 December 1988 and created the first treaty-level international obligation to criminalise laundering conduct linked to drug-trafficking proceeds, alongside confiscation and international-cooperation measures. It entered into force globally on 11 November 1990.
Current UN depositary relationship to 1988 Vienna Convention. This is not a claim that the jurisdiction was already a Party on the GLOBAL event date; the national accession/ratification date is a separate LOCAL/STATUS fact.
UN Treaty Collection ↗The Basel Committee published a Statement of Principles for banks aimed at reducing the risk that banking institutions would be used by criminals or as channels for money laundering. This helped establish the preventive and supervisory side of AML alongside the emerging criminal-law framework.
A Basel supervisory publication does not become domestic law merely because it is GLOBAL. National adoption, supervisory use or incorporation must be evidenced by a LOCAL milestone or source.
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision ↗