FATF Confirms Adding South Africa To Its Gray List

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has published a summary of the outcomes of its latest plenary meeting, confirming that South Africa and Nigeria have been placed on its list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring.

• The money-laundering watchdog notes that "jurisdictions under increased monitoring are actively working with the FATF to address the 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."
• "In February 2023, South Africa made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and ESAAMLG to strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime. Since the adoption of its MER in June 2021, South Africa has made significant progress on many of the MER’s recommended actions to improve its system including by developing national AML/CFT policies to address higher risks and newly amending the legal framework for TF and TFS, among others."
• The graylisting of South Africa was effectively preannounced by the country's chief tax official this morning, which explains the little to no market reaction after the release of the official statement by the watchdog. FATF President T. Raja Kumar will hold a press conference to discuss the outcomes of the plenary meeting today at 17:00CET.