The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Africa Joint Group last week concluded its on-site assessment of whether South Africa has implemented anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing reforms, says National Treasury.
Now that the assessment has been completed, the FATF Plenary in October will consider whether to remove the country from its grey list.
The Joint Group held meetings on 29 and 30 July with government officials and representatives of financial institutions and designated non-bank financial institutions, Treasury said in a statement last week.
The Joint Group also met with Deputy Minister of Finance David Masondo and Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Andries Nel, who both assured the FATF of the government’s political commitment to continue to improve the country’s anti-money laundering and the combating of the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) system.
The on-site visit followed the announcement by the June 2025 FATF Plenary that South Africa had substantially completed all the 22 action items contained in the Action Plan that was adopted when the country was grey-listed in February 2023.
Read: SA nears grey list exit after complying with all 22 action items
“Following the completion of the 22 action items, the June 2025 FATF Plenary noted that South Africa’s progress warranted an on-site assessment to verify that critical AML/CFT reforms have been implemented, and the necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain progress,” Treasury said.
The Joint Group will submit a report to the October FATF Plenary, which will consider any recommendations from the report on whether South Africa can be removed from the grey list.
