The National Treasury has welcomed the removal of South Africa from the European Union’s list of High-risk Third Country Jurisdictions (EU List).
This follows the delisting of South Africa from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) greylist or “list of countries under increased monitoring” and the United Kingdom’s list of countries in which there is a high risk for money laundering and terror financing, both of which happened on 13 October 2025.
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“National Treasury notes that removal from the FATF and EU lists of high-risk jurisdictions does not mean that all South Africa’s challenges in implementing its Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) system have been resolved, and recognises that much work still needs to be done to strengthen deficiencies in the prevention, identification, investigation and prosecution of money laundering and terrorism financing,” the National Treasury said on Tuesday.
The European Union acknowledged the efforts made by South Africa and the other five African countries, in strengthening their AML/CFT systems, noting:
“Burkina Faso, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania have strengthened 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. The Commission therefore considers that Burkina Faso, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania no longer have strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT regimes…”
South Africa was added to the EU List in August 2023 as an automatic consequence of its greylisting by the FATF in February 2023.
The EU listing was in terms of its Article 9(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/849, which requires that third-country jurisdictions having strategic deficiencies in their systems for combating money laundering and terrorism financing (high-risk third countries) must be identified to protect the proper functioning of the EU’s internal market.
“This EU law requires that financial institutions in the EU must apply a higher level of scrutiny to transactions involving parties in countries deemed to be high-risk (enhanced due diligence), resulting in more rigorous and intrusive checks, increased documentation requirements, continuous monitoring and senior management approval for transactions,” the National Treasury said.
These requirements add friction to financial transactions and flows, affecting trade, payments and investment.
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It should be noted that the removal of legislative obligations on EU financial institutions to conduct enhanced due diligence on South African-related transactions does not compel any financial institutions to rescind their risk assessment policies towards South Africa but allows willing EU financial institutions to adjust their risk assessment policies as they see fit.
South Africa will be entering a new round of evaluation by FATF in the coming months, with a final report scheduled to be presented to the FATF plenary in October 2027.
Preparation has begun in earnest, incorporating the lessons learnt and experience gained during the process to exit FATF greylisting.