South Africa has achieved a significant milestone in its financial governance journey with its removal from the European Union’s list of High-Risk Third Country Jurisdictions, a designation that took effect on 29 January 2026. The announcement was welcomed by the National Treasury, which highlighted the development as a positive step for reducing barriers to international financial engagement. 

The EU list identifies countries with strategic deficiencies in their systems for combating money laundering and terrorism financing. These criteria are designed to protect the integrity of the EU’s internal financial markets. South Africa was added to this list in August 2023 after being placed on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) greylist, which signals elevated risk and requires enhanced scrutiny on financial transactions involving the listed jurisdictions. 

Treasury officials say the EU’s decision reflects substantial improvements in South Africa’s anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) frameworks, including strengthened regulatory controls and more comprehensive systems to track and prevent illicit financial flows. The move follows South Africa’s exit from the FATF greylist and similar removal from the United Kingdom’s high-risk list in October 2025.

Under EU rules, inclusion on the high-risk list had compelled EU financial institutions to apply enhanced due diligence, including more intrusive checks, additional documentation, and higher-level approvals on transactions involving South African entities. This added substantial cost and administrative friction to cross-border trade, payments and investment. The delisting therefore brings potential long-term benefits for international trade and investment flows.

Despite the positive development, the Treasury stressed that work remains to be done to further strengthen South Africa’s AML/CFT regime, particularly in the areas of investigation and prosecution of financial crimes. The country is preparing for a new FATF evaluation round, with the final report expected by October 2027, using lessons learned from the recent successful exit from greylisting.