SA greylisting will affect business climate: BASA

Banking Association South Africa says the country being put on the Financial Action Task Force greylist will adversely affect the climate of conducting business. It was reacting to the announcement by the global watchdog that Nigeria and South Africa had been added to the greylist.

This means the country will be under increased monitoring regarding its actions against money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.

The South African government says it has eight outstanding recommendations to address while sixty-seven deficiencies that were flagged by the financial watchdog have been addressed.

The Banking Association’s Managing Director Bongiwe Kunene says, “The impacts will differ. So, immediately, the trading that we can speak to is about how banks finance themselves. The expectation is that that may be more difficult in terms of the rates that the banks get whenever they pay for the way they finance themselves. Then that will have an impact on the real economy in terms of who we trade with.”

VIDEO | Impact of greylisting of SA on the banking sector: Bongiwe Kunene