SA revamps finance system in face of gray listing risk

South Africa’s financial system is being overhauled to address weaknesses that have placed it at risk of being included on a global watchdog’s list of nations subject to greater oversight due to their shortcomings in tackling illicit finance.

“Our system is so naive that we can’t act” and are unable to deal with highly organised criminal syndicates, Ismail Momoniat, the National Treasury’s acting director general, said in a webinar organised by the Daily Maverick news website on Wednesday. The government realises “more needs to be done. We need to be more vigilant and importantly, we need to be able to act much quicker than we do,” he said.

Africa’s most-industrialised economy was found wanting in all 11 of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force’s effectiveness measures to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The evaluation was carried out in 2019 following an era of endemic graft during former