AD to ask Auditor General to investigate MFSA

The party will be presenting a formal request tomorrow, in light of the regulator's silence in the face of the very serious allegations made over the past week

AD deputy chairperson Carmel Cacopardo (left) and chairperson Arnold Cassola (right)
AD deputy chairperson Carmel Cacopardo (left) and chairperson Arnold Cassola (right)

Alternattiva Demokratika deputy chairperson Carmel Cacopardo has said that the party will tomorrow be presenting a formal request to the Auditor General asking him to investigate the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA).

Cacopardo said it was crystal clear that the current crisis is due to the “complete collapse” of the institutions entrusted to safeguard transparency, governance and ethics in every area of public life.

He said that after the police force was weakened through the removal of four commissioners in three years, and after “massive delays” in investigating the serious allegations of the past few days, a “long shadow” has now been cast on the financial services regulator.

The greens, he said will be asking the Auditor General to examine the license granted to Pilatus Bank by the MFSA, in particular:

1. Whether the criteria under which a license was granted to Pilatus Bank followed the normal procedures used by Authority in similar circumstances. Linked to this, AD said it will be asking the Auditor General to “shed light” on how the MFSA issued a license to Pilatus Bank when its chairman is not even a banker.

2. An investigation into whether steps have been taken by the MFSA upon it realising that among the bank’s customers were Politically Exposed Persons from Azerbaijan - “the most corrupt country in the world”- and that there was a considerable risk that their bank accounts were being financed by money laundering thus inflicting “huge reputational damage on the country’s financial sector.    

3. An examination of the claims that during an inspection by MFSA in 2015, the bank accounts belonging to Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri were identified, and if this was the case, why their names were omitted from the final inspection report.

Carmel Cacopardo stressed that AD would be asking the Auditor General to take these steps since the MFSA had remained silent, in spite of serious allegations being made about the operation of the financial services institutions in Malta.