Botswana steps closer to exiting dirty money greylist

In 2019, the FATF’s adverse recommendations about the deficiencies in the country’s anti-money laundering structures resulted in the European Union (EU) blacklisting Botswana and 22 others, citing the weak systems. The EU at the time said it had to “make sure that dirty money from other countries does not find its way to our financial system”. This week, the FATF updated its assessment of Botswana’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting of Financing Terrorism (AML/CFT) environment and noted substantial progress, with the site visit required to finally clear the country.

“At its June 2021 plenary, the FATF has made the initial determination that Botswana has substantially completed its action plan and warrants an on-site assessment to verify that implementation of AML/CFT reforms has begun and is being sustained and that the necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain implementation in future,” FATF researchers said in a statement.