FIC & NT: SA Greylisting update after site visit

FIC & NT: SA Greylisting update after site visit

• 06 August 2025
• Money Laundering
• South African Accounting Academy

Summary:

The National Treasury has published a media release following the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)  Africa Joint Group's concluding our on-site assessment visit of South Africa during 29-30 July 2025.

Article:

The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) also published this media release on their website.

This completes the last step before the October 2025 FATF Plenary can consider whether to remove South Africa from its greylisting list.

The FATF Joint Group held meetings with South African Government officials and representatives of financial institutions and Designated Non-Bank Financial Institutions. At the conclusion of the meetings, the FATF Africa Joint Group held a meeting with the Deputy Minister of Finance and the Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, who both assured the FATF of the South African Government’s political commitment to continue to sustainably improve the country’s Anti-Money Laundering and the Combating of the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) system.

The conducting of the on-site visit by the FATF Joint Group followed the announcement by the June 2025 FATF Plenary that South Africa had substantially completed all the 22 action items that were contained in the Action Plan that was adopted when South Africa was greylisted in February 2023. Following the completion of the 22 action items in the Action Plan, 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 that the necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain progress. Refer to our previous Alert dated 10 July 2025

Following the conclusion of the onsite visit, the FATF Africa Joint Group will submit a report to the October 2025 FATF Plenary, which will consider any recommendations from the report on whether South Africa can be delisted from the FATF greylist.

The National Treasury will not be issuing further media statements or conducting interviews until the FATF Plenary concludes its next Plenary Meeting on 24 October 2025 and issues its post-plenary outcomes media statement.

Click here to download the 1-page Media Release:

https://www.fic.gov.za/2025/07/31/national-treasury-media-release-fatf-africa-joint-group-concludes-on-site-assessment-visit-of-south-africa-29-30-july-2025/ 

Relevance to Auditors, Independent Reviewers & Accountants:

• FICA is yet another piece of legislation that your clients must comply with, and which you must assess compliance with.  If they don’t comply with the relevant laws and regulations, you have certain reporting obligations in terms of NOCLAR (NOn-Compliance with Laws And Regulations) – this could include reporting to management, qualifying your audit opinion, reporting a Reportable Irregularity, etc.
• Auditors, Independent Reviewers and Accountants should be aware of the latest publications and guidance issued by regulators, such as the FATF.
• As an accountable institution, a business owner and individual, you need to be aware of developments in respect of our country’s greylisting.

Relevance to Your clients:

• An accountable institution, as well as an entity (company or close corporation), has a duty to comply with the FICA, otherwise they could be held liable.
• As an accountable institution, a business owner and individual, you need to be aware of developments in respect of our country’s greylisting.

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