Mauritius Removed From The EU List Of High-risk Third Countries ("EU Blacklist")

Following a highly successful evaluation of Mauritius' regime against Money laundering and the financing of terrorism, the Financial Action Task Force ("FATF") removed Mauritius from the list of non-compliant jurisdictions on 21 October 2021. Shortly after, the United Kingdom also removed Mauritius from its list of high-risk countries under the UK Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) (No. 3) (high-risk countries) Regulations 2021. It was therefore only a matter of time before the European Union, who had placed Mauritius on its high-risk third countries based on the findings of the FAFT, also removed Mauritius from the EU Blacklist. This has now become a reality and on 07 January 2022, the European Commission removed Mauritius from the EU Blacklist by acknowledging that it no longer presents strategic deficiencies on the basis of the criteria laid down in its Directive (EU) 2015/849. The whitelisting by the FATF, the UK and now the EU goes a long way to