About the Free Trade Zone Risk Assessment Tool

Who is this tool for?

This tool is intended for businesses who:

  • Operate in Free Trade Zones;
  • Have customers who operate in a Free Trade Zone; or
  • Otherwise facilitate trade involving a Free Trade Zone.

This includes financial institutions, such as banks and insurance companies, and transport intermediaries, such as shipping lines and freight forwarders.

The tool helps assess the user’s exposure to the risk of facilitating criminal conduct. It does so by:

  • Facilitating a well-informed view of a Free Trade Zone’s criminal vulnerabilities and mitigation measures. The tool guides the user through assessing the factors that determine an FTZ’s criminal risk profile. It identifies 11 such factors common to FTZs, provides a framework for their assessment and lists sources of relevant information. The tool is designed to produce a numerical FTZ risk score as described below, but it can also be used by compliance and investigation professionals as a first step in analysing how a particular FTZ can be used for crime.
  • Identifying a Free Trade Zone’s overall risk level. The assessment of FTZ risk factors will result in an overall risk score that can be used by compliance professionals as a supplement or alternative to country risk scores. This will result in more accurate risk assessment for FTZ-related transactions because an FTZ’s risk profile may differ from that of the country where it is located.

You can download the summary of this risk assessment tool here.