Pretoria meets US Treasury over anti-money laundering, terror financing matters

National Treasury has held meetings with the US Treasury Department in Pretoria on Wednesday to discuss a number of financial sector-related matters.

Expressing traditionally strong country bonds, their cooperation primarily focussed on dealing with matters pertaining to anti-money laundering and terror financing.

The US recently announced placing sanctions on four South African individuals alleged to be financing ISIS terrorism. In this instance, the partnership involves South Africa helping in enforcing those sanctions.

National Treasury Director-General, Dondo Mogajane says, “We have various protocols that we’ve agreed upon, exchange of tax information. We need to protect the continent, we need to protect individuals and save lives.

National Treasury holds meetings with US Treasury Department:

The US Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, who led the US delegation, is the top principal for economic sanctions, anti-money laundering and terror financing.

Nelson reiterates the United States’ deep concern about what he termed the unprovoked attack on Ukraine by Russian forces and said that it was making efforts in partnership with its allies to give Ukraine the fullest support.

However, he suggests that this didn’t mean that other pressing global issues would not be attended to. “As visible by my visit today, we need to do a lot of things all at once. Russia and Ukraine are obviously very important, this conversation and these meetings today are very important about countering the financing of terrorism as well as just all of the work that South Africa’s doing to fight corruption and the US wants to join in that work,” Nelson explains.

The two countries say these engagements are pivotal for cementing relations and remaining on the same page around certain globally strategic issues.

Treasury meets with US to discuss financial sector matters: