{"id":847833,"date":"2026-01-14T11:00:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T09:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=847833"},"modified":"2026-01-14T11:00:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T09:00:04","slug":"europe-gives-south-africa-the-green-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/847833\/europe-gives-south-africa-the-green-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe gives South Africa the green light"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa has been removed from the European Union\u2019s list of High-Risk third-country jurisdictions after it was taken off the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF’s) grey list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa was added to the EU list in August 2023 as an automatic consequence of its greylisting earlier that year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country was added to the grey list for failures in its response to illicit financial flows, including money laundering and the funding of terrorism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU listing required third-country jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in their systems for detecting illicit financial flows to be identified, thereby protecting the functioning of the EU\u2019s internal market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EU law requires that its financial institutions apply a higher level of scrutiny to transactions involving parties in countries seen as high-risk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Treasury stated that this results in more rigorous and intrusive checks, increased documentation requirements, continuous monitoring, and senior management approval for transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These requirements added friction to financial transactions and flows, which impacted trade, payments and investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a massive undertaking by the National Treasury, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), and others, South Africa met 22 action items and was removed from the grey list in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With South Africa now off the grey list, it has also been taken off the European Union\u2019s list of\u00a0\u201cHigh-<\/em>
Risk Third Country Jurisdictions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s removal from the EU’s list will take effect officially on 29 January 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not done yet <\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana (far left), joined by senior treasury officials<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

National Treasury stressed that the removal from the EU’s list does not compel EU financial institutions to rescind their risk assessment policies towards South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It rather allows willing EU financial institutions to adjust their risk assessment policies as they see fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Treasury also noted that the removal from the FATF and EU lists does not mean that all of South Africa’s challenges in implementing its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism system have been resolved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It recognised that much work will need to be done to strengthen deficiencies in the prevention, identification, investigation and prosecution of money laundering and terrorism financing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa will enter a new round of evaluation by FATF in the coming months, with the final report scheduled to be presented to the FATF plenary in October 2027. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Preparation has begun in earnest, incorporating the lessons learnt and experience gained during the process to exit FATF greylisting,” said the National Treasury. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While South Africa is not yet out of the woods, being removed from the grey list adds to the many positives going into 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economic growth is expected to reach around 1.5% in 2026, supported by lower inflation and interest rates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This represents a significant improvement from the 0.7% recorded in 2023 and 2024, with 2025 expected to reach around 1%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the specifics, inflation is expected to remain broadly around the SARB’s new target of 3% for the financial year, supported by a stronger rand, lower fuel prices, and good rains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lower inflation figures should enable the SARB to continue its interest rate-cutting cycle, with two 50-basis-point cuts widely expected for 2026, taking the repo rate to 6.25%. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa has received another win after its removal from the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":847839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[3534,24500,3796],"class_list":["post-847833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-eu","tag-finance-miniter","tag-national-treasury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847833"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847846,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847833\/revisions\/847846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}