Tough road ahead as SA tries to meet FATF requirements to get off grey list - Treasury

CAPE TOWN - A year since South Africa was put on a notorious grey list for inadequate provisions to curb money laundering and terror financing, the National Treasury says it’s a tough road ahead to meet all the requirements by January. 
 
Greylisting hampers the country’s ability to attract investment and access to international financial markets. 
 
Following last week’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary meetings in Paris, South Africa has been given further deadlines to meet some of the outstanding items on that checklist. 
 
Five of the 22 action items have now been deemed either to be partially, or fully addressed. 
 
The FATF has now acknowledged South Africa for having dealt with at least two action items that were not previously addressed.

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These relate to criminalising terrorism financing and the use of intelligence from the Financial Intelligence Centre to support money laundering investigations. 
 
It brings the number of action items that have been partly addressed to 14 out of 17. 
 
But the road ahead is still long, with several deadlines set over the next year. 
 
Three action items have not yet been addressed. 
 
By May, the National Treasury hopes to have addressed at least four more outstanding items ahead of another assessment in June.
 
South Africa has been given another year to fully address the shortcomings in preparation for a site visit in April 2025 that could lead to a recommendation to the mid-year plenary, to remove it from the list. 
 
According to the latest re-ratings, South Africa is now deemed to have largely complied with 35 out of FATF’s 40 recommendations.