'We're confident SA will exit grey list in October' - Treasury's Momoniat

The MoneyShow's Stephen Grooters is joined by Ismail Momoniat from the National Treasury.

The National Treasury announced a week ago that South Africa had made 'significant progress' on exiting the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) grey list.

It reported that the global anti-corruption watchdog had announced that we'd substantially completed all 22 action items that were contained in the Action Plan adopted when South Africa was greylisted over two years ago, in February 2023.

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Treasury's Ismail Momoniat says he's 'absolutely confident' that SA will exit the list in October, when the next meeting of the FATF takes place.

All that remains to be done before that meeting is an on-site visit, he explains.

Asked whether our technical capability is also a factor, Mononiat responds that the FATF doesn't really focus on this.

"It only looks at money laundering and terror financing related to our financial system... I think the on-site visit, a two-day session, is more of 'a quick look before we say yes'. They'll have all the teams they've been dealing with come forward and just summarise their progress since we got greylisted. And secondly, assess whether this will be sustained into the future."

Ismail Momoniat, National Treasury

It's the financial sector which has probably felt the most impact from our greylisting status, Momoniat remarks.

"They would have seen, possibly, that they faced stronger due diligence for transactions and it would take more time, so it was costly in that way. And of course SA would be seen as a higher risk for the other financial institutions that we have to do business with on a daily basis."

Ismail Momoniat, National Treasury

In that sense, he says, the cost of trade and transactions will go down when we're removed from the list.

"Had we stayed longer on it the cost would have continued to go up because, in a way, we've been given a chance of trying to deal with our weaknesses over the two years."

Ismail Momoniat, National Treasury

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