It is with relief that the country, especially the financial sector, has learned that Mauritius is no longer on FATF’s grey list. The authorities have worked hard since early February 2020 to achieve this positive result. A delisting from other lists such as the European Union and the United Kingdom is to be expected soon.
Mauritius has paid a heavy price for the incompetence and irresponsibility demonstrated by the government in handling the anti-money laundering file between 2014 and 2020.
FATF’s international standards for combating money laundering and terrorist financing were revised in 2012/13 to focus on enforcement rather than exclusively on legislation. But the government had done little to enhance our anti-money laundering system. This led to an unfavorable FATF/Esaamlag report on Mauritius in 2018.
Since that report until February 2020, the government was still not doing enough to correct the gaps and other deficiencies and the inevitable happened with a ‘Greylisting’ by the FATF. The consequences represent an irrecoverable loss for the offshore sector, notably by the volume of new structures that have chosen to locate elsewhere than in Mauritius, be it in Singapore or Luxembourg. Our reputation as a financial center has been damaged, and will remain at a disadvantage as compared to our competitors who were able to avoid a bad rating.
While we are pleased with this favorable development, we must remember that the lack of vigilance and the inability to act of the authorities had serious and irreparable consequences. Let this be a lesson to us that as anti-money laundering standards continue to evolve, Mauritius must maintain its action to avoid further damage to our reputation as a strong financial center.
