Greylisting blame game

DEFICIENT: SA ON LIST FOR LAPSES IN FIGHT AG

- Ciaran Ryan

Lawyers, estate agents accused of holding up SA's removal from list.

Some estate agents have hit back at claims they are holding up SA's removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) greylist.

The latest stats from the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) show that 60% of legal practitioner offices and 66% of estate agents have submitted risk and compliance reports required by the FATF.

This is an improvement on the 52% and 42% compliance rates for legal practitioners and estate agents announced in February. But it is nowhere near the level required to lift the greylisting.

However, there is a possibility that the FIC is basing its percentage compliance rates on incorrect data.

"The industry is supportive of the FIC's endeavours in this regard and we have communicated the urgency of the matter to our members," says Jan le Roux, chief executive of the Real Estate Business Owners of South Africa.

"We are, however, of the opinion that the FIC is basing its assessment on incorrect data. We have reason to believe that many estate agencies have stopped trading but have omitted advising [the] FIC accordingly.

"Hence, the FIC would be under the impression that no responses were forthcoming from operating companies.

"We have communicated this concern to the FIC and suggested they liaise with the PPRA in this regard, which, to the best of my knowledge, has not occurred yet."

The FIC previously said there are roughly 16 000 legal practitioner offices and 9 000 estate agents in SA though it appears the latter figure could be lower.

The greylist makes it more difficult for SA companies to access overseas capital and imposes higher due diligence standards when dealing with foreign businesses and banks.