Malta pledges to address FATF concerns, repeats misgivings on greylisting

Malta does not deserve to be greylisted, the government said but pledged to remain “fully committed” to address concerns raised by the Financial Action Task Force.

Reacting to the formal announcement by FATF that Malta has been placed on the greylist of countries requiring increased monitoring, government said on Friday it intends to address the recommended actions “within the shortest possible timeframes”.

“Malta firmly believes that it does not deserve to be subject to increased monitoring   considering the plethora of reforms implemented that led to tangible progress in its ability to prevent, detect and combat money laundering and the funding of terrorism effectively,” the government said.

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The FATF identified three key areas in which Malta was found wanting and which it has to act upon. These are an increase in focus of the FIAU’s financial analysis on serious tax offences and related money laundering; increase the use of financial intelligence in pursuing criminal tax and related money laundering cases; and improve the identification of inaccurate beneficial ownership information provided by Maltese legal persons.

The government statement said the three concerns were the only ones from the 58 recommended actions listed in the 2019 mutual evaluation report (MER) that FATF felt were not sufficiently addressed.

Despite its misgivings, the government said Malta “has been and will remain fully committed to working with the FATF and other international partners to ensure that the partially addressed recommended actions are addressed within the shortest possible timeframes”. 

Government thanked all the authorities and stakeholders from within the public and private sectors that worked tirelessly throughout this process to ensure the country had a robust anti-money laundering framework.

“The Government of Malta would also like to show its appreciation to the numerous jurisdictions that supported Malta and put forward the view that Malta did indeed make sufficient and tangible progress,” the statement ended.