BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE– The Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) has noted that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), in its February 2023 Plenary sessions, included the Republic of South Africa in the list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring.
This is known as greylisting and the CBE Governor Phil Mnisi has encouraged and further urged businesses based within Eswatini to be calm and patient during the period of SA getting grey-listed.
Mnisi said the Republic of South Africa remains key to the Kingdom of Eswatini as a major trading partner.
Additionally, the banking sector within Eswatini has strong ties to South Africa, through the strong presence of cross-border banking subsidiaries in Eswatini.
“As a member of the National Task Force on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism in Eswatini, the Central Bank of Eswatini continues to work alongside other stakeholders in monitoring the developments in South Africa as they relate to the country’s implementation of measures to address the deficiencies raised in the Mutual Evaluation Report, 2021,” he said.
Mnisi emphasised that CBE stands resolute in support of the Republic of South Africa as they continue to fully strengthen their AML regime.
He said they were encouraged by their unwavering commitment to work with the FATF and Eastern and Southern African Anti Money Laundering Group to address all outstanding deficiencies and strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime swiftly and effectively.
“We are encouraged that all stakeholders have undertaken to implement all possible efforts to facilitate the quick resolution of the issues. The Central Bank takes this opportunity to remind the public that the Kingdom of Eswatini is under observation by the FATF until June 2023.
“The Kingdom of Eswatini is expected to have achieved substantial progress in addressing deficiencies identified in the Mutual Evaluation Report, 2022. The CBE continues to develop robust measures to enhance its supervisory framework and actively cooperate with country stakeholders in the National Task Force led by the Ministry of Finance, to remediate all the findings that require concerted efforts,” he said.
Worth noting is that as Regulator, the Central Bank of Eswatini further assured the nation that the financial sector continues to enhance its anti-money laundering and counter the financing of terrorism programs. The integrity, stability, and soundness of the financial sector is still in healthy condition. To this end, the Central Bank reaffirms its commitment to fight against money laundering, financing terrorism, and financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
