South Africa will remain on the Financial Action Task Forces greylist due to its enduring strategic deficiencies, despite governments optimism that the country would be taken off the list by this year.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an intergovernmental body established in 1989 by the ministers of its member jurisdictions to protect financial systems and the broader economy from threats of money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation, thereby strengthening financial sector integrity and contributing to safety and security.
The greylistJurisdictions under increased monitoring actively work 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 the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes and is subject to increased monitoring. This list is often externally referred to as the greylist.
According to the outcomes of the FATF Plenary held in Singapore for the past three days, South Africa made a high-level political commitment in February last year to work with the FATF and the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group to strengthen the effectiveness of its anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism regime.
