Following its June 2021 plenary meeting held this week, the FAFT has confirmed today, Friday 25 June 2021, that Mauritius has substantially completed its action plan at technical level and that FAFT will conduct an onsite inspection in Mauritius, to take stock of its implemented measures outlined in its last progress report submitted in April 2021 and to validate the progress made. This is a welcoming and very positive news for Mauritius which will hopefully pave the way for Mauritius to be officially considered for removal from the FAFT Grey List. The onsite inspection is generally the last and decisive stage in the process to be removed and generally means that the FATF is satisfied, based on the evidence provided by the country, that it has addressed all the strategic deficiencies in its regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. Subject to the satisfactory conclusion of the onsite inspection, Mauritius may expect to be removed from the FATF Grey List in their next plenary meeting. On the basis that the European Commission had already confirmed in writing that there would be no top-up benchmark applied to Mauritius and that the country's removal from the FATF Grey List will lead to its removal from the EU AML/CFT Blacklist, it is therefore likely Mauritius will move to EU Whitelist before the end of 2021.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.