Mozambique: FATF to visit in September to discuss leaving ‘grey list’

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Mozambique: FATF to visit in September to discuss leaving ‘grey list’

7:07 CAT | 18 Jun 2025

File photo: Reuters

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is meeting in Mozambique from 8 to 11 September to decide on the international “grey list” of money laundering, which has included that African country since 2022, the government announced on Monday.

“As part of efforts to remove Mozambique from the grey list, the country has complied with the 26 actions of the FATF plan, which has led this institution to recognise the capacity of our institutions to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing,” said Mozambique’s Finance Minister Carla Loveira during a central bank event held today in Maputo.

The minister added that the FATF Council of Ministers had approved “an on-site visit on 8 and 9 September, an essential step in the process of removing Mozambique from the grey list”.

“The FATF Council of Ministers also approved the holding of a face-to-face meeting in Mozambique from 8 to 11 September, where the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) will assess the countries on the ‘grey list’ worldwide. The scheduling of the ICRG meeting in Mozambique represents recognition that the country is implementing a sustainable system to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing,” the finance minister added.

The ICRG is a body that assesses and monitors countries that require further development of their anti-money laundering and terrorist financing structures, identifies risks, works with countries to implement corrections, and may include them on the FATF’s ‘grey’ watch list or ‘black’ list of non-cooperative countries.

In addition to Mozambique, the ‘grey list’ also includes Angola, as well as neighbouring countries such as Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania, among others.

The Mozambican authorities announced on 15 May that they had complied with all the indicators that led to their inclusion on the FATF’s ‘grey list’ of financial jurisdictions on 22 October 2022, namely while working to address deficiencies in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

“We expect the authorities to complete the procedures promptly so that they remove us from the grey list and we return to the normal situation where our financial institutions, our reputation, the perception of foreign investors towards the country, everything returns (…) where people see us as committed to combating money laundering,” said Luís Abel Cezerilo, national coordinator for Mozambique’s removal from the grey list, at a press conference.

The Mozambican authorities had previously stated that Mozambique’s removal from the “grey list” depended on the last of the 26 required actions: the submission of the list of Non-Profit Organisations that move “large sums of money”, together with data on how they apply the funds, with a special focus on Cabo Delgado and the terrorist groups operating in the province since 2017.

He said that the international financial institutions now view the country positively, adding that the country has met all indicators and that only “protocol procedures” remain before the FATF can announce its removal from the list at a meeting in Mozambique in September to assess the country and others in the same situation.

“The government has complied, the FATF is a serious institution and therefore will give us every reason to leave the grey list,” Cezerilo said.

Source: Lusa