South Africa has been officially removed from the EU’s list of “high-risk third country jurisdictions” after the country’s exit from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) greylist in October last year.
This also follows South Africa’s removal from the UK’s list of high-risk countries for money laundering and terrorist financing.
The latest decision, announced on January 9 and taking effect from January 29, is expected to ease compliance burdens on financial institutions within the EU when transacting with South African counterparts. It is seen as a vote of confidence in South Africa’s efforts to reform its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) framework.
The Treasury welcomed the development, alongside the removal of five other African nations – Burkina Faso, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania – after similar FATF delistings last year.
South Africa was initially placed on the EU list in August 2023 shortly after being greylisted by the FATF in February of that year. Under EU law, this designation required member-state financial institutions to implement “enhanced due diligence” on transactions involving listed countries, leading to stricter documentation demands, more intrusive compliance checks and potentially discouraging investment and trade.
The EU acknowledged the efforts made by South Africa and the other countries to strengthen “the effectiveness of their AML/CFT regimes and addressed technical deficiencies to meet the commitments in their action plans on the strategic deficiencies identified by the FATF.”
According to a Treasury statement, EU financial institutions are no longer required to apply enhanced due diligence to South African transactions but may still do so at their discretion.
However, while the removal from both the FATF greylist and the EU’s high-risk list signals international recognition of South Africa’s reform efforts, the Treasury stressed that this does not imply the country’s challenges are over adding that “much work still needs to be done to strengthen deficiencies in the prevention, identification, investigation and prosecution of money laundering and terrorism financing.”
South Africa is preparing for its next round of FATF evaluation with a final report due to be tabled at the global body’s plenary in October 2027.
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