Government optimistic that Mozambique will come off FATF “grey list”

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Government optimistic that Mozambique will come off FATF “grey list”

5:12 CAT | 17 Jul 2025

Image: AIM

– The Mozambican government remains optimistic that by the end of this year the country will be removed from the “grey list” of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), according to a report in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”.

A meeting of FATF specialists will be held in Maputo on 8-9 September and a specific assessment of the country is scheduled for October.

The “grey list”, officially known as “Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring” includes countries identified by the FATF as having strategic deficiencies in their measures to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Countries on this list are subject to increased monitoring and scrutiny by the FATF. The list is intended to serve as a warning to the countries concerned to improve their performance and comply with international standards.

As of February 2025, the FATF reviewed 139 countries and publicly identified 114 of them. 86 of them made reforms that satisfied the FATF and were removed from the list. There are now 24 countries on the grey list. In addition to Mozambique, they include South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Algeria and Nigeria.

The FATF also has a “black list” of countries. In these cases, other jurisdictions can be called upon to apply counter-measures to protect the international financial system from the money laundering or terrorist financing emanating from the blacklisted countries. Currently, only three countries are on the black list – North Korea, Iran and Myanmar,

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benvinda Levi received a team headed by Fikili Zitha, the Executive Secretary of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESMAALG), to discuss the efforts under way to remove Mozambique from the grey list.

At the end of this meeting, Finance Minister Carla Louveira stressed the importance of ensuring that Mozambique is never placed on the grey list again.

“The important thing is that we are not working simply to come off the grey list, but working so that in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, when the FATF makes its assessment in 2030, it finds a situation completely different from that detected in 2021, which led to putting Mozambique on the grey list”, said Louveira.

She said that Mozambique has complied in full with 26 measures demanded by the FATF, and so she was confident of a positive response from the institution.

Source: AIM