Cash payments of €10,000 for gold, cars, boats and property no longer possible

Laundering dirty money through luxury purchases made in cash has become a tad harder since cash transactions of €10,000 and higher were made illegal last March.

The cash restriction was introduced as part of wide-ranging reforms to combat money laundering.

And now the Financial Intelligence and Analysis Unit has set the ball rolling to create a new internal team focussed on supervising and enforcing the new cash restriction.

The agency will be able to verify transactions carried out in the areas indicated by the law by analysing money transfers and reconciling sales with income derived from them.

The regulations prohibit making and receiving payments amounting to €10,000 or more when purchasing or selling immovable property, antiques, jewellery, cars, boats and works of art.

Cash is still widely used in the criminal economy because it is easier to break the audit trail, according to the Financial Action Task Force, an international anti-money laundering body.

Malta had no such restriction on cash transactions and the matter was flagged by the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering committee, Moneyval, in its evaluation.

“The new rules will impact sellers and buyers,” FIAU director Kenneth Farrugia said, during a briefing for journalists on Tuesday ahead of the release of the agency’s annual report for 2020.

The FIAU was tasked by government to assist in the drafting of the cash restriction law.

Farrugia said the law makes it clear that cash transactions of €10,000 or more cannot be broken down into smaller payments to evade the law.