South Africa is making good progress towards getting off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list. National Treasury in a recent Media Statement announced that 9 areas have shown improvement, with eight of these being upgraded to "largely addressed" and one to "partly addressed." This means South Africa has now dealt with 16 out of 22 action items, leaving 6 more to be completed by February 2025.

The grey list includes countries under increased monitoring for having weaknesses in their anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) measures. South Africa was added to this list in February 2023, but has since made progress in areas like better supervision of high-risk professionals, improving how proceeds from crimes are tracked and seized, and implementing financial sanctions effectively.

What is still outstanding?

However, there are still some steps South Africa needs to take to exit the grey list by February 2025. These include applying better sanctions for AML/CFT violations, ensuring authorities can quickly access accurate beneficial ownership information, and increasing investigations and prosecutions of serious money laundering and terrorism financing cases.

Beneficial Ownership Information Must Be Filed

For accountants, it’s important to make sure that clients have their beneficial ownership information properly registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) and Masters Office by 30 November 2024. This will help meet FATF requirements and support South Africa’s goal of leaving the grey list.

If South Africa can address the remaining issues, FATF could visit in mid-2025 to verify progress, which might lead to the country being removed from the grey list by June 2025. This would boost confidence in South Africa’s financial system and strengthen the fight against financial crimes.

Read our recent AW articles on filings beneficial ownership information for Trusts and Companies and learn more.