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GREYLISTING UPDATE
- 24 February 2025
- National Treasury
- SA Legal Academy
South Africa now has until the end of June 2025 to address two outstanding items on an action plan list of 22 compiled in February 2023, when the country was grey listed by the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF). According to the progress table issued with a National Treasury media statement on the new deadline, by July 2025 – when the next FATF plenary is scheduled to take place – ‘in line with its risk profile’ South Africa should be able to demonstrate ‘a sustained increase’ in:
- ‘investigations and prosecutions of serious and complex money laundering, in particular involving professional money laundering networks/enablers and third-party money laundering’, as well as in
- ‘the effective identification, investigation and prosecution of the full range of counter- financing terrorism activities’.
The National Treasury statement describes curbing these activities as ‘the most demanding goals’ of any national anti-money laundering (AML) and curbing financing terrorism (CFT) system. Similar sentiments underpinned its July 2024 statement, which referred to addressing the then 14 items outstanding as ‘a tough challenge’ – as SA Legal Academy reported at the time.
In its 21 February 2025 plenary report on jurisdictions under increased monitoring, the FATF noted:
- South Africa’s ‘high-level political commitment to … strengthen(ing) the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime, and
- steps taken towards improving the regime, among other things by:
- ‘demonstrating that all supervisors apply effective, proportionate, and effective sanctions’ ‘ensuring (that) competent authorities have timely access to accurate and up to date beneficial ownership information on legal persons and arrangements’, and
- ‘applying sanctions’ for breaches or violation of beneficial ownership obligations by legal persons.
South Africa ‘is now deemed to have addressed or largely addressed’ 20 of the February 2023 action plan items but must nevertheless meet the remaining requirements to be considered for de-listing in October 2025.
- National Treasury media statement
- FATF report
- July 2024 SA Legal Academy report
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch
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