The Orwell book, 1984, has the dubious distinction of being the book more people say they have read, but actually have not.
Perhaps the book, 50 Shades of Grey has the opposite distinction.
But I digress.
South Africa has 22 shades of Grey as set out on the Grey List by FATF in February 2023. FATF is The Financial Action Task Force an international organisation designed to combat international money laundering and terror financing.
The 22 grey items were agreed to in February 2023 are now down to 14 items outstanding. There was a thought that the Grey Listing would be lifted soon, but the 14 items will take a further year to complete to FATF’s satisfaction. The next deadline is October 2025.
We remain Grey Listed for now.
To get back into mainstream international finance systems, we need to drop the Grey Listed label.
This means we will have to continue with World Standard of compliance and update Beneficial Ownership registers on an annual basis. Compliance will be continuously upgraded until we lose the Gery Listing moniker. And then every year we will have to up our game further.
Please bear with us when we ask for additional information or documentation. There is nothing we would rather not do. We do not make this stuff up and neither do the Financial Institutions.
We try to remember that compliance is designed to protect investors. I agree, sometimes the link seems tenuous, but maybe the link is designed to protect the economy. Or fight terrorist financing.
Either way, we need to comply to get up to World Standards. It will help us and the economy in the long run.
Please shout if we can help in any way.
Hang in there.