It’s official: Mauritius exits European Union’s blacklist

It’s now confirmed. Mauritius is officially no longer on the blacklist of the European Union (EU).

L’Express cited the Official Journal of the EU as reporting that its Council and the Parliament approved the resolution taken by the European Commission to remove Mauritius from its blacklist.

In addition to Mauritius, four other countries have also exited the blacklist. They are the Bahamas, Botswana, Ghana and Iraq.

However, 23 countries are still in the blacklist: Afghanistan, Barbados, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Haiti, Jamaica, Mali, Morocco, Myanmar/Burma, Nicaragua, Panama, Philippines, South Sudan, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Vanuatu, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

L’Express said the European Commission noted that these countries have strengthened the effectiveness of their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) mechanisms.

The countries have reportedly “remedied technical shortcomings so as to respect the commitments made in their action plans with respect to strategic deficiencies identified by the FATF, as well as additional benchmarks or concerns set by the Commission”.

This development comes almost three months after the exit of Mauritius from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), on October 21, 2021.