National Treasury’s acting director-general, Ismail Momoniat, believes there is a chance that South Africa will not be grey-listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) next year, according to a report in Business Day.
“I certainly have not given up and will fight to the fullest extent to prevent it. We are making significant and real progress [in meeting the requirements laid down by the FATF],” he was quoted as saying in an interview with the publication after attending an FATF plenary session in Paris last week.
Momoniat acknowledged that avoiding the grey list would be “tough”, according to the publication.
The Business Day report said Momoniat led a “high-powered” delegation to the FATF’s plenary meeting and used the occasion to interact and learn from other countries on what they are doing to meet the FATF’s standards.
The delegation included representatives from the South African Reserve Bank, National Treasury, the Financial Intelligence Centre, the National Prosecuting Authority, the State Security Agency and the FSCA.
The plenary and working group meetings took place at the FATF’s headquarters in Paris from October 18 to 21 and were attended by delegates from 200 jurisdictions.
Business Day said the meeting did not deal with the follow-up mutual evaluation report on South Africa and whether the country has done enough to avoid grey-listing. This decision will be made by the FATF plenary in February on the basis of an assessment of the secretariat and the regional FATF joint group.
There was no indication yet of how the FATF would decide on grey-listing South Africa, Momoniat said, but the government and its agencies were doing everything possible to avoid it.
South Africa has submitted a preliminary report on the two bills being processed in Parliament that aim to strengthen the regime for combating money laundering and terrorism financing. Momoniat was confident these bills would be adopted by Parliament by the end of the year, “which will be a big step forward, as we will be seen to technically comply”, he was quoted as saying.
