FATF Removes Côte d'Ivoire, Congo From Grey List
The Financial Action Task Force lifted the two countries from its list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring on October 30, 2025.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Financial Crime
On October 30, 2025, the Financial Action Task Force removed Côte d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo from its grey list after on-site visits confirmed both had completed their agreed action plans. The FATF announced the removals at the end of its plenary meeting in Paris.
Why it matters
Grey-listing is associated with reduced capital inflows, so removal can affect investor perception of the countries' anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing controls. The European Union has not followed suit: both countries remain on its separate list of high-risk third countries.
A 2021 IMF working paper across 89 economies associates grey-listing with an average 7.6% of GDP decline in capital inflows. It is not yet known how the October 2025 removals will affect inflows for Côte d'Ivoire or the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The players
Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
The FATF is an intergovernmental body based in Paris that sets international standards for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive arm of the European Union, based in Brussels, which maintains the EU's list of high-risk third countries.
FinCEN
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department that administers the country's anti-money-laundering regulations.
The details
The FATF removed both countries after confirming they had completed agreed action plans to strengthen anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing regimes. On October 30, the U.S. Treasury's FinCEN notified American financial institutions of the four removals, though the FATF itself does not call for enhanced due diligence on grey-listed countries.
Timeline
• August 5, 2025: Côte d'Ivoire was added to the EU list of high-risk third countries.
• October 2025: Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Nigeria and South Africa were removed from the FATF grey list.
• October 30, 2025: The FATF removed Côte d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo from its grey list.
• December 4, 2025: The European Commission adopted the removal of four African countries from the EU list.
• January 29, 2026: Mali and Tanzania's EU list removals took effect.
Legal Context
The removals follow the FATF grey-list process, which lists countries with strategic anti-money-laundering deficiencies and removes them once agreed action plans are completed. The EU maintains its own high-risk list, so a country can be cleared by one body while remaining flagged by the other.
Investors watching emerging-market exposure may weigh the FATF removal against the EU's continued listing of both countries. Because the two lists apply different treatment, the practical effect on capital flows and due-diligence costs depends on which institutions an investor deals with.
The takeaway
A country's status on one international list does not settle its status on another. Investors and institutions dealing with these markets should track both the FATF grey list and the EU high-risk list rather than assuming one reflects the other.
Further reading
For background on how anti-money-laundering rules work across borders, see Financial Crime.
