South Africa exits FATF grey list, boosting investor confidence

SA was placed under Increased Monitoring (“grey listed”) by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in February 2023.

Today, 33 months later, the FATF announced that SA is no longer on the grey list. 

Initially SA was placed on the grey list due to deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism systems, which included insufficient enforcement of the laws. In June 2025, the FATF announced that SA had substantially completed all 22 action items in its action plan, paving the way for its removal from the list. 

While SA’s exit from the grey list was widely anticipated, there was some concern that the exit would be delayed due to a lack of prosecutions of serious and complex money laundering crimes, as well as the need to increase the effective identification, investigation, and prosecution of the full range of terror financing activities. Although these factors did not delay SA’s exit from the list, they still need to be improved. 

In June 2025, the FATF also determined that Burkina Faso, Mozambique, and Nigeria had substantially completed their Action Plans. Consequently, they were removed from the grey list today. At this stage there are still 20 countries on the grey list.  

Although it took SA 33 months to exit the grey list, this is not unusual. For example, Tanzania was grey listed in October 2022 and removed from the list in June 2025, which is also a period of 33 months. Nigeria spent only 25 months on the list, while Mozambique was on the list for 37 months and it took Burkina Faso 57 months to exit. 

Being on the grey list added a layer of cost to the complexity of doing business in SA, especially in relation to any offshore transactions. It also undermined investor sentiment and was an embarrassing position for the authorities, given that SA holds the Presidency of the G20 for 2025. Hopefully, the country’s exit from the grey list will provide a much-needed boost to investors (foreign and domestic), business and household confidence, helping to make 2026 a more prosperous year for the South African economy.

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