On 19 June 2026 the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) removed Namibia from its list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, the so-called grey list, which Namibia had been on since 23 February 2024. None of the official documents we read says that opening a bank account in Namibia has become easier or faster for foreigners, and the EU's own list is still to follow.
What happened on 19 June 2026?
Namibia's Ministry of Finance announced the same day that the FATF plenary had decided to remove the country from the list. The ministry's release says the FATF found Namibia had largely addressed all 13 action items ahead of the May 2026 deadline and recommended an on-site assessment, which took place in Windhoek on 23 and 24 April 2026.
Why was Namibia on the list?
According to the Ministry of Finance, Namibia was listed because of 13 strategic deficiencies in its framework against money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. The FATF gave it an action plan with a final deadline of May 2026. Between July 2024 and November 2025 a national committee led by the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) sent the FATF one voluntary and four compulsory progress reports. The Namibian business paper The Economist reports that nine laws were amended and four new laws passed during the 12-month observation period.
Does it change how banks treat foreign customers?
We found no official statement on this. Customer identification at banks is governed by the Financial Intelligence Act and supervised by the FIC, and each bank sets its own document list. The Finance Minister, quoted by The Economist, described the aim as building “a financial system that is stable, resilient, and trusted” for investor confidence, which is a general aim, not a rule change. Whether banks will ask for fewer documents or decide faster is not confirmed by any source we read, so do not plan around it. What banks currently require is covered in the banking section of our Business page.
What does the EU say?
The EU Delegation to Namibia said on 7 July 2026 that the FATF decision started an internal EU procedure expected to remove Namibia from the EU's own list of high-risk jurisdictions by the end of the year, after a vote in the European Parliament. Until then EU financial institutions must apply enhanced customer due diligence to transactions involving listed jurisdictions. The delegation also stresses that the EU list is not a set of sanctions or trade and investment restrictions. In practice this means a payment that passes through an EU bank may still get extra checks until the EU list changes, and the end-of-year date is an expectation, not a decision.
What happens next?
The Finance Minister, quoted by The Economist, called the exit “a major milestone” and not the end of the journey; the same paper reports that the next scheduled mutual evaluation is in 2030. In August 2026 the FIC announced that the FATF president had invited Namibia to attend FATF plenary meetings for one year as a guest jurisdiction, without voting rights.
What we could not confirm
- Any effect of the FATF decision on how Namibian banks open accounts for foreign customers, or how quickly.
- Document lists, deadlines and minimum balances at individual banks.
- The date on which the EU list will change: only “expected by the end of the year”.
- The FATF's own plenary outcomes page, which did not open when we tried; this page relies on the Namibian ministry's release and the EU Delegation's statement.
This page summarises published statements and is not legal or financial advice. If you plan a Namibian permit as well, see our overview of residence permit types under the Immigration Control Act.