Is Mauritius on the Grey or Black List Today?

Mauritius and the Greylist/Blacklist Question: Where the Island Stands TodayCopy link to section

The grey list and black list status of Mauritius is settled: the jurisdiction sits on none of the major international lists maintained by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the European Union, or the OECD. A monitoring episode that began in 2020 was fully resolved between October 2021 and January 2022, and the FATF country page confirms the island no longer requires increased monitoring.

This matters most to foreign owners running global business companies, fund structures, or holding vehicles, and to advisers weighing where to place a cross-border entity. The pages below explain how the listing happened, what changed, what it cost while it lasted, and what keeps the jurisdiction clear going forward.

It is written for non-residents who need to understand whether a Mauritian structure carries any residual listing risk before they commit capital or set up.

The Aggregator Snapshot: Every Listing Body and Mauritius's Current Status at a GlanceCopy link to section

For a foreign owner, the short answer is that every relevant list is clear. The longer answer is a sequence of dates, each tied to a different body with its own criteria.

By the time of its FATF exit, the island was rated largely or fully compliant with 39 of the 40 FATF recommendations. The episode is closed on every front, which is the fact that should anchor any due diligence on a Mauritian entity.

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The EU Lists: Annex I Blacklist and Annex II Greylist History for MauritiusCopy link to section

The EU runs two distinct tax lists that owners often confuse. Annex I is the blacklist of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes; Annex II is a "state of play" greylist for countries that have committed to reforms but have not yet completed them.

Mauritius has never appeared on either Annex. Its only EU listing was on a separate track entirely, the AML/CFT high-risk third countries list given effect under Article 9 of Directive 2015/849, and that listing flowed directly from the FATF decision rather than from any tax finding.

The AML listing took effect in October 2020. On 22 December 2021 the European Commission College of Commissioners decided to remove the island, and the EU lists page reflects the wider framework against which jurisdictions are assessed.

Formal removal from the EU AML blacklist was confirmed on 7 January 2022. For context, Annex I first appeared on 5 December 2017 with 17 territories, none of them Mauritius.

The FATF Greylist Episode: Listing in 2020 and Exit in 2021Copy link to section

The grey list is FATF's register of jurisdictions under increased monitoring. Mauritius entered it in February 2020, following a Mutual Evaluation Report carried out by the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) in 2018 and updated in 2019.

The government responded with a high-level political commitment to fix the identified deficiencies inside agreed timeframes. At its June 2021 Plenary, FATF made the initial determination that the action plan had been substantially completed.

An on-site assessment by FATF's Africa/Middle East Joint Group ran from 13 to 15 September 2021 to verify that reforms were in place and being sustained. On 21 October 2021, FATF announced that the island no longer required increased monitoring.

Delisting can take a jurisdiction up to five years. Mauritius achieved it in roughly two, among the first countries to exit ahead of the FATF deadline.

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OECD and Global Forum Assessments Affecting MauritiusCopy link to section

The OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes runs the peer-review system that more than 170 jurisdictions participate in. It monitors implementation of the Exchange of Information on Request (EOIR) standard and the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) standard, and a second-round EOIR review report was published for Mauritius in 2017.

The island also participates in the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework, where BEPS Action 5 commits members to counter harmful tax practices and to spontaneously exchange information on certain tax rulings. No adverse finding against Mauritius emerged from these reviews.

In the OECD's Tax Transparency in Africa 2024 report, co-produced with the African Union Commission and the African Tax Administration Forum, Mauritius is described as cementing leadership in tax transparency across the continent. Its standing rests partly on a wide network of double taxation agreements and tax information exchange agreements; the published EOIR ratings sit within this same Global Forum process.

A September 2024 workshop run jointly by the Global Forum Secretariat and the Mauritius Revenue Authority on verifying CRS compliance points to an active, ongoing role in the AEOI architecture rather than a one-off fix.

The Specific Deficiencies Cited and the Action Plan Mauritius Committed ToCopy link to section

FATF identified five major weaknesses in the island's AML/CFT systems. The two that mattered most were a need for supervisory authorities across sectors to effectively supervise their licensees, and gaps in the declaration of beneficial ownership of management businesses.

The underlying ESAAMLG report cited a lack of effective risk-based supervision, limited access to beneficial ownership information, and insufficient AML/CFT measures. To track the response, the government set up a Core Group and a Sub-Committee under the National AML/CFT Committee.

The action plan ran to five commitments. The confirmed items were:

1. Implementing risk-based supervision plans effectively for the Financial Services Commission and relevant DNFBP supervisors.
2. Demonstrating that law enforcement agencies could conduct money laundering investigations, including parallel financial investigations and complex cases.
3. Ensuring competent authorities had timely access to accurate basic and beneficial ownership information.
4. Conducting outreach to promote understanding of money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks and obligations across sectors.

The EU AML listing took effect on 1 October 2020. In direct response to the FATF decision at its 19-21 February 2020 Plenary, Parliament passed the Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020.

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What Mauritius Changed to Secure DelistingCopy link to section

The 2020 Miscellaneous Provisions Act was gazetted on 9 July 2020 with the aim of aligning the regime more closely to FATF best practice. Alongside it, amendments to the Companies Act 2001 forced businesses to gather, record, and disclose beneficial ownership data.

Enforcement teeth were sharpened as well. The Bank of Mauritius lifted the maximum fine for institutions that breach its AML/CFT directives from one million rupees to ten million rupees, a ten-fold increase, and a committee chaired by the Prime Minister was created to push the action plan through.

At its October 2021 Plenary, FATF cited four reforms as the basis for delisting: cross-sector outreach on ML/TF risks; effective risk-based supervision plans for the Financial Services Commission; timely access to beneficial ownership data; and training to equip law enforcement for money-laundering investigations. The accounting profession contributed too, with the Mauritius Institute of Professional Accountants publishing AML/CFT guidelines for its licensees in early 2021.

By delisting, the jurisdiction met 39 of 40 recommendations. The lone gap, Recommendation 15 on virtual assets and service providers, was upgraded from "Partially Compliant" to "Largely Compliant" in 2022, supported by a draft Virtual Assets Business Bill circulated for consultation.

Practical Consequences for Foreign Owners During the Listing PeriodCopy link to section

While the listing stood, the friction was real. Enhanced due diligence drove significant delays in transaction completion and bank payments, raised cross-border costs, and constrained the country's capacity to run corporate operations cleanly.

Dealing with EU counterparties grew harder, and the strain fell hardest on the global business and banking sectors. Some prospective investors went looking for cleaner jurisdictions, and a number of existing owners moved their company's domicile elsewhere.

Institutions inside the jurisdiction faced tighter scrutiny, and the island was perceived as carrying elevated money-laundering and terrorist-financing risk. IMF analysis puts the average drop in capital inflows from grey-listing at 7.6% of GDP, a blow landing while the economy was already absorbing the COVID-19 shock.

The single event that unwound most of this was the FATF delisting in October 2021, which triggered automatic removal from both the EU AML blacklist and the UK's high-risk list.

Correspondent Banking, Enhanced Due Diligence, and Investor PerceptionCopy link to section

Banking access is where listing bites hardest for a foreign-owned entity. Enhanced due diligence delayed bank payments and slowed the close of transactions, and the reputational overhang pushed some counterparties to limit exposure.

The wider data shows why. KPMG figures indicate correspondent banking relationships between grey-listed and non-grey-listed jurisdictions can fall by as much as 20%, while SWIFT data records external receipts dropping by up to 10% after a listing.

After delisting, the expectation was that EU AML removal would follow quickly and give EU institutional investors the comfort to keep backing Mauritian corporate and fund structures. The reversal restored the island's standing, which the World Bank's 2020/2021 rankings had placed first in Africa for ease of doing business and 13th globally.

Outlook: Staying Off the Lists and What Could Trigger a RelistingCopy link to section

Staying clear depends on sustained implementation, not a single past fix. FATF keeps monitoring through follow-up evaluations and can re-list any jurisdiction that demonstrably backslides on its commitments.

The authorities have set out the maintenance program. The island continues to work with ESAAMLG on strengthening the AML/CFT system, and the Financial Services Commission has restated its commitment to protecting the integrity of the global business sector and the jurisdiction's credibility.

Known relisting risks have been managed. The virtual-assets gap that posed an early threat was closed with the 2022 Recommendation 15 upgrade, and the wide DTAA and TIEA network reinforces standing with the OECD Global Forum.

No public data points to a current or imminent relisting risk. The general principle holds: continued reporting to FATF and continued enforcement are what keep a jurisdiction off the lists, and many analysts read the 2020 episode as the trigger that forced a lasting clean-up of the financial services industry.

ConclusionCopy link to section

A foreign owner evaluating Mauritius today is looking at a jurisdiction with a clean record across FATF, EU tax and AML lists, and the OECD. The listing was real and disruptive while it lasted, but it was resolved fast, and the legislative and supervisory changes made to secure delisting remain in force. The practical takeaway is that residual listing risk is low, provided the entity itself meets the beneficial ownership and AML obligations the reforms introduced. Sound structuring and ongoing compliance, rather than worry about the lists themselves, should drive the decision.

How Expanship Can Help Your Business in MauritiusCopy link to section

Expanship helps foreign owners meet the beneficial ownership, supervision, and AML obligations that came out of the FATF episode, and confirm a structure sits cleanly within the current framework. That support sits alongside the full set of services a non-resident entity needs to incorporate and stay compliant.

• Company incorporation and structuring for global business and holding entities
• Registered agent and registered office services
• Tax registration and ongoing filing with the Mauritius Revenue Authority
• Beneficial ownership records and ongoing compliance management
• Accounting and bookkeeping
• Introductions to banking and correspondent banking partners

To discuss your structure, contact Expanship Mauritius.

Frequently Asked QuestionsCopy link to section