Grey list reprieve widely welcomed, but caution urged
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decision to delist SA from its grey list, marks a quick turnaround for a country once accused of looking the other way on money laundering and terror finance.
It is reported that the move has been widely welcomed and is expected to restore investor confidence.
However, experts are warning that the real challenge now is to stay clean. Since it was added to the grey list in 2023, SA has since ticked off all 22 boxes addressing deficiencies identified by the global financial crime watchdog.
FATF president Elisa de Anda Madrazo noted that ‘a record of four countries have been removed from the grey list, including SA, which has sharpened the tools to detect money laundering and terrorist financing’.
Other countries removed from the list on Friday included Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Nigeria.
The Daily Maverick reports that the decision ends SA’s two year stint in the global naughty corner, better known as the grey list, for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing compliance.
Among the improvements cited were ‘a sustained increase in investigations and prosecutions of serious and complex money laundering and the full range of terrorist financing activities,’ and ‘enhancing identification, seizure and confiscation of proceeds and instrumentalities of crime’.
SA’s greylisting in February 2023, was a public judgment that although the country had robust financial protection frameworks on paper, enforcement was sorely lacking.
SA has managed to close 22 action items, including boosting prosecutions, cleaning up beneficial ownership records, and tightening oversight of dodgy sectors from estate agents to crypto service providers.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
