By
Vishal Bhidu
In collaboration with ENSafrica, the South Africa Chamber of Commerce Mauritius (SACCM) hosted a panel discussion on May 23 at Le Sufferen, Port Louis where Executive and Forensic Specialist at ENSafrica Steven Powell and Director of Financial Services at the Economic Development Board (EDB) Vinay Guddye shed insights on the greylisting process and its implications for South Africa while drawing a comparison with Mauritius which successfully exited the list in a record time of 20 months.
At the outset, the South African expert told, “The remarkable achievement of Mauritius having exited the list set against the context where it was deemed to be non-compliant with 39 out of 40 recommendations and having successfully reversed the trend to be highly compliant shows the amount of work undertaken on the local shores.” He pinpointed the fact that countries such as South Africa and Mauritius are going to face over-regulation and the crux of the matter lies in how to respond to such issues pertaining to anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing.
An interesting aspect that Powell stressed upon is the fact that Mauritius has been able to overturn the tide linked to the FATF Grey list by swiftly passing a slew of laws to the tune of 47 new legislations introduced or amended while also pointing out that it has been fortunate since it has a smaller population as compared to South Africa where it is easier to get everyone on board to help pass the law.
South Africa’s report card, he says, doesn’t look great with one of the key deficiencies being its poor understanding of money laundering laden with risk in terms of the supervisory board. He tells that there is a need for digital forensic experts that remain in short supply and this is something that will not happen overnight coupled with the lack of skills and resources to probe money laundering.
”We anticipate that it will take South Africa 2-3 years to exit the grey list and one of the reasons being is that prosecution takes quite some time to happen,” he indicated.
Director of Financial Services at the EDB Vinay Guddye enumerated that several measures were taken by Mauritius and among which were 115 training sessions designed for officers of regulatory and supervisory bodies across non-financial business professionals such as accountants, lawyers, trade, and real estate called upon to implement risk-based supervision to meet AML/CFT obligations.
He told: “At that time, the level of awareness was found to be very low among professionals where the aim was to help address the issue with the various courses striving to educate and spur the level of awareness to identify the AML/CFT issues coinciding with the setting up of FSI under the ambit of Financial Services Commission. As a result, we were able to exit the grey list in 2022 which happened around the same time we were removed from the EU’s Black list. Today we are compliant and largely compliant with 40 out of 40 recommendations, as a result of which the FATF has asked Mauritius to be a part of the peer-to-peer coaching to help countries exit the list by helping to amend the regulations and the supervisory framework.”
He underlined complaints whereby some have hinted at over regulations and to which he told that it will take some time to achieve the perfect balance in terms of compliance and technicalities ironed out where both the private and public sector stakeholders can work together to remain compliant.
He rang a warning bell on the risks for the jurisdiction to ‘easily’ slip back into the Grey List if caution is not exercised. “There is a need to make sure that proper regulations are in place to check transactions as we live in an increasingly dynamic world witnessing change all the time. Nowadays, people in Mauritius are turning more towards e-commerce to do business where villas are rented on Air BnB, hinging on the need for proper regulation coupled with supervising such transactions, to adapt ourselves to change and be dynamic as we better educate ourselves on the issue.
In an exclusive statement to Platform Africa, President of SACCM Bilal Adam told: “We are proud to partner with ENSafrica in bringing this relevant topic to Mauritius on facts and challenges facing South Africa, including the country being greylisted. I think it is pertinent and important because this is an opportunity for South Africa to learn from Mauritius’ success to come off the grey list in a record time of 20 months. At SACCM, our role is to assist both South Africa and Mauritius in international trade and the grey list South Africa finds itself is an impediment to trade where the aim is to assist South Africa in exiting the list as soon as possible.”
He added that the event has been a great success in bringing together the minds of both South Africa and Mauritius to cover this important topic.
