European Commission moves to withdraw Mauritius from the List of High-Risk Third Countries

On the 7th of January 2022, the European Commission approved the removal of Mauritius from its list of high-risk third countries by acknowledging that it no longer presents strategic deficiencies on the basis of the criteria laid down in Directive (EU) 2015/849.

It should be noted that the European Council and Parliament have a scrutiny period of one month in order to object to this Act. If there is no objection, the Act will be published in the EU Official Journal and it will enter into force 20 days after the publication.

The decision of the European Commission came after Mauritius was removed from the FATF list of countries subject to increased monitoring on 21st October 2021.

The EU Commission Delegated Regulation of 7th January 2022 stated:

"The FATF welcomed significant progress made by Botswana, Ghana and Mauritius in improving its AML/CFT regime and noted that Botswana, Ghana and Mauritius have established the legal and regulatory framework to meet the commitments in their action plans regarding the strategic deficiencies that the FATF had identified. The Commission's analysis concludes that the Bahamas, Botswana, Ghana, Iraq and Mauritius no longer have strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT regime considering the available information. The Bahamas, Botswana, Ghana, Iraq and Mauritius have strengthened the effectiveness of their AML/CFT regime. These measures are sufficiently comprehensive and meet the necessary requirements to consider that strategic deficiencies identified under article 9 of the Directive (EU) 2015/849 have been removed".