FATF greylisting ‘a punishment for the whole country’ - Bernard Grech

The decision this afternoon by the Financial Action Task Force to grey-list Malta is “a punishment for the whole country”, opposition leader Bernard Grech has said.

“We now need to work together to reach a consensus on how to get back on the FATF’s white list,” he said in a recorded message on Facebook. “I am inviting the government to set up a national task force that will bring us all together to work to see Malta off the grey list once again.”

Grech said that when the FATF meets again October, he wanted Malta to be on the agenda again, this time for members to vote Malta back onto the white list.

“This can only happen if we come together, both sides of Parliament, as well as our social partners in the finance sector, to implement in full the FATF’s action plan (that has yet to be published,” he said. “That is the only way now to limit the effects this grey-listing will have on the Maltese people.”

Grech said that Malta had overcome many huge challenges in the past and he was convinced the country could do so now again.

“The Nationalist Party vows to work towards increasing transparency and scrutiny as wll as changing the mentality at the highest level of the administration,” he said.