Business Risk Matrix

There remain serious legal, political, financial, and reputational risks associated with doing business in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran’s financial sector stands next to North Korea as the only countries on the planet designated on the blacklist of the money laundering and counter-terrorism watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The network affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which remains sanctioned by the US Government as a terrorist organization, and foundations that answer to the Supreme Leader, called bonyad, control significant swaths of the Iranian economy, according to the most conservative estimates. Any company doing business in the Islamic Republic will touch one of these actors.

The risks inherent in doing business in Iran can be classified into the 12 categories below. In light of such risks, it should be clear to all responsible companies that Iran is not genuinely “open for business.”