It emphasises that Government has worked tirelessly to address all the deficiencies reflected in the 22-action item plan agreed between South Africa and FATF. The global financial crime watchdog placed SA on the grey list in 2023, citing the country’s failure to comply with international standards around the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. Abedian says there now needs to be a clamping down on.

“There is no doubt that this is very good news, positive, in many ways, and this welcome change in terms of global rating of SA. Of course, SA is still um junk graded as they call it in the financial capital markets, but the combination of junk grade and grey listed was really very poisonous and lethal and costly for our economy. So, I welcome the opportunity that we now at least one tick uh gone from red to green,” he said.