Risk Indicators
- FATF/EU Blacklist/Greylist (Lower Concern)
- Terrorism Financing (Medium Concern)
- US Dept of State INCSR
- Proliferation Financing
- Corruption
- Criminality
- Resilience & Governance
- Financial Transparency
- Offshore Finance Centres
- Sanctions
Background
Jordan emerged from the post–World War I reshaping of the Middle East, when Britain established Transjordan in 1921 and recognized ABDALLAH I of the Hashemite family as its first leader. After gaining independence in 1946, it became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, carrying a history linked to the Hashemite presence in the Hijaz before IBN SAUD and Wahhabi tribes displaced them in 1925. This background places Jordan within a broader regional story shaped by imperial administration, dynastic rule, and shifting borders.
Its contemporary environment is defined by proximity to Syria, Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, and Saudi Arabia, with the first three presenting markedly different forms of conflict and political risk. Syria’s heavily sanctioned landscape, Iraq’s vulnerable financial sector and targeted restrictions, and the continuing Gaza and West Bank tensions create overlapping security and illicit-finance concerns, including shell companies, cross-border trafficking, and sanctions-evasion networks. Saudi Arabia remains comparatively stable, while Jordan’s own sensitivities are heightened by regional displacement pressures and its large Palestinian population.
AML & Terrorist Financing
Jordan has made significant AML/CFT progress and exited FATF increased monitoring in 2023, with the 2025 follow-up recording stronger compliance across several recommendations. Nevertheless, challenges remain around beneficial ownership, risk-based supervision, the quality and use of suspicious transaction reports, confiscation, and consistent prosecution of money laundering, while the AMLU, Central Bank of Jordan, Jordan Securities Commission, and Companies Control Department continue to play central roles. Terrorist-financing investigations have produced meaningful results, but targeted financial sanctions, non-profit organisation oversight, proliferation-financing controls, and coordination among authorities remain areas requiring continued attention.
Sanctions
Jordan implements United Nations Security Council sanctions, including measures involving arms, travel, finance, commodities, terrorism, and proliferation, through its obligations as a UN member. Domestically, its Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Unit administers a national sanctions list targeting terrorism financing and proliferation, alongside implementation of names appearing on the UN Consolidated List. No sanctions imposed against Jordan by other nations or international bodies are identified, although the available measures reflect the broader UN framework of 15 ongoing regimes as of June 2026.
Criminality
Jordan has strengthened its legal and institutional framework against corruption, with the Jordan Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission reporting investigations, recovered funds, and the cancellation of unlawful bids, yet the use of family, business, and personal connections remains a persistent concern. Crime includes trafficking and smuggling networks, counterfeit goods, drug distribution, cyber-enabled fraud, environmental offenses, and financial scams, with border areas, refugee communities, and sectors vulnerable to exploitation receiving particular attention.
Reports
Jordan faces intertwined security challenges involving year-round narcotics smuggling, evolving trafficking routes, and heightened terrorist recruitment and spillover risks linked to regional conflicts, with the Anti-Narcotics Department recording increased convictions and major seizures of captagon, hashish, crystal methamphetamine, and marijuana. Human trafficking vulnerabilities remain pronounced among migrant workers, refugees, and children amid an employer-linked visa system, while authorities have expanded victim identification and national strategy efforts; meanwhile, strengthened border surveillance, joint security exercises, and several 2024 incidents underscore persistent concerns around extremist violence and unresolved extradition issues.
Industry/Product Sector Risk
Jordan’s financial and commercial landscape shows a varied risk profile, with particular exposure emerging around cash-intensive activity, exchange and remittance services, real estate, construction, cross-border trade, and non-profit organizations amid regional flows and extensive land borders. Banks, mobile payment providers, precious-metals dealers, and other businesses face differing vulnerabilities involving beneficial ownership, informal value transfer, trade-based laundering, cyber-enabled crime, and proceeds linked to tax evasion, smuggling, corruption, fraud, and drug trafficking. Oversight by bodies including the Central Bank, the Ministry of Social Development, the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission, the Cybercrime Unit, and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission provides important context for understanding where Jordan’s controls and emerging sectoral challenges intersect.
Economy & Investment Climate
Jordan’s economy has shown resilience amid regional instability, with 2.5 percent growth and $1.6 billion in FDI in 2024, while the Economic Modernization Vision targets long-term expansion across technology, tourism, manufacturing, logistics, energy, and other priority sectors. The Ministry of Investment, Central Bank of Jordan, and Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority are advancing facilitation and infrastructure initiatives, though investors continue to weigh bureaucratic inefficiencies, high energy costs, water scarcity, labor-market pressures, and selective foreign-ownership restrictions.
Cryptocurrency Regulations
Jordan is moving toward a formal virtual-asset framework while cryptocurrencies remain outside legal tender status and financial institutions face restrictions from the Central Bank of Jordan. The Jordan Securities Commission, Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Law No. 20 of 2021, and FATF-aligned risk assessments point toward future licensing, KYC, transaction-monitoring, and possible tax requirements, although key rules for exchanges, token offerings, classifications, and reporting remain unsettled.
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