The National Treasury hopes to reduce the prospects of greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) by urgently tabling an omnibus of legislation, but acknowledges that it "will have to perform a few miracles" to succeed.
The FATF is the global money-laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, which sets international standards and assesses technical compliance, for instance, whether a country has an appropriate legal framework in place. It also assesses the effectiveness of the framework, for instance, whether prosecutions have taken place for money laundering or terrorism financing.
Greylisting by the FATF would raise SA’s risk profile, place a question mark over its financial regulatory bodies and attach a higher risk premium to corresponding relationships between SA banks and international financial institutions. At worst, corresponding banking relationships could be cancelled.
