South Africa Was Greylisted – What Does This Mean? 

After the FATF released its mutual evaluation report on South Africa’s AML/CFT legislation nearly two years ago, the country has failed to sufficiently address the FATF’s concerns. As a result, South Africa was greylisted by the FATF – a decision that has undermined South Africa’s capacity to efficiently engage with international finance, and serves as another complication for those wanting to invest in the country. 

“Jurisdictions under increased monitoring are actively working with the FATF to address strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. When the FATF places a jurisdiction under increased monitoring, it means the country has committed to resolve swiftly the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes and is subject to increased monitoring. This list is often externally referred to as the greylist.” – FATF.

Therefore, South Africa’s status on the greylist is not permanent. If South Africa is abe to address and fix all of the issues that caused the FATF to greylist South Africa in the first place, then the country will be taken off the greylist and international financial services industries will be able to trade in the country more easily. 

Updates from the Treasury – Worth Getting Excited For? 

The new director of the South African treasury, Duncan Pieterse, has said that South Africa has made notable progress in addressing many of the concerns raised by the FATF. 

Commenting on the progress that has been made, Mr Pieterse said that 

"So in both of the areas related to money laundering specifically there has been an improvement in terms of the action items that we are required to report to FATF on" - Duncan Pieterse, Director of the South African Treasury. 

This comment mirrors what has been said by the head of South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Shamila Batohi, who told Parliament that steady progress was also being made to address the legal deficiencies in meeting FATF's requirements.

The FATF is scheduled to meet in Paris to discuss the progress made by South Africa in addressing its key deficiencies – the outcomes from this conference will provide clearer indications as to whether the FATF views South Africa’s progress favourably. 

If this is the case, South Africa may be on track to gradually work its way off the FATF’s greylist. 

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