Later this month, SA will be greylisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). This will put the world on alert that SA is a gangster state. Well, I embellish. The FATF’s wording is that greylisted countries have “strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing”. Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, that is.

The consequences of greylisting are that other countries must treat SA with a heightened level of suspicion. Several countries require their institutions to apply “enhanced due diligence” of SA counterparts. In practice this means more frequent assessments, requests for more details on sources of funds and procedures, more senior management engagement with foreign counterparts. That is if those counterparts will do business with South Africans at all...

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