Key Highlights:
- South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso were removed from the FATF Grey List
- Reporting Entities must revise their internal procedures to reflect the changes in the grey list
- The FATF Grey List is also known as the Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring List
A mandatory update took place, as FATF on 24th October 2025, removed South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso from its “Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring” list, which is also known as “FATF Grey List”.
It is basically a list of countries that are under increased monitoring for strategic inadequacies in their AML/CFT/CPF framework and are addressing these inadequacies.
The FATF Grey List Update October 2025 suggests a significant milestone for four nations which were once targeted as grey-listed countries. These countries are mainly South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso, which have now been removed from the FATF Grey List.
However, the other jurisdictions remain under increased monitoring, including:
Algeria, Angola, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Monaco, Namibia, Nepal, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (UK), and Yemen.
FATF, short for Financial Action Task Force, is an intergovernmental body that defines policies and sets standards to combat Money Laundering (ML), Terrorism Financing (TF), and Proliferation Financing (PF). It performs research on Money Laundering and Terrorism Funding tactics, promotes global standards for risk mitigation, and evaluates whether countries prioritise strategies to fight ML/TF/PF risks.
Further, the FATF Plenary and decision-making body meet three times a year to hold countries accountable for not complying with the standards. When a country fails to abide by FATF standards, the FATF names the jurisdiction under high risk or increased monitoring, also known as “the grey and black lists”.
Regulated Entities must plan accordingly to implement the changes in their working dynamics that reduce the likelihood of ML/TF risks. The suggested action plan includes:
- Revising the Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessment (EWRA) to define their ML/TF risk likelihood from the updated FATF Grey List countries.
- Further, the risk matrices should be revised to remove Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa from higher-risk jurisdictions.
- Applicable Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) measures for the current grey-listed countries.
- Update internal AML policies and procedures are required. Additionally, Regulated Entities that are using AML software solutions should ensure their system is updated with the changes made in the FATF grey list.
- Lastly, proper training should be provided to employees to train them about the updated processes while engaging with customers.
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