Mauritius removed from FATF grey list

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has removed Mauritius from its list of ‘Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring’ during the fifth Plenary of the FATF which took place on 19-21 October.
This comes after an on-site visit conducted by the FATF in September of this year where Mauritius has been hailed as ‘Compliant or Largely Compliant in 39 out of the 40 FATF Recommendations on Technical Compliance, with only Recommendation 15 (New Technologies) rated as Partially Compliant’.

The FATF has also lauded the significant progress made by Mauritius in addressing the strategic AML/CFT deficiencies identified earlier and included in its action plan, despite the challenges posed by COVID-19:

“The FATF welcomes Mauritius’s significant progress in improving its AML/CFT regime. Mauritius has strengthened the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime and addressed related technical deficiencies to meet the commitments in its action plan regarding the strategic deficiencies that the FATF identified in February 2020. Mauritius is therefore no longer subject to the FATF’s increased monitoring process. Mauritius will continue to work with ESAAMLG to improve further its AML/CFT system.”

One of the objectives of the Mauritian Financial Sector is to work towards becoming the first country in the world to implement all 40 FATF recommendations.

Since the FATF removed Mauritius from its grey list, the European Commission is now expected to start the administrative process to, in turn, remove Mauritius from the EU ‘blacklist’ of high-risk countries. 

A piece of welcome news coupled with the opening of the borders since the start of October. Here’s to a brighter future! If you are looking to invest in Mauritius, we invite you to discover our properties for sale.