The MONEYVAL Committee of the Council of Europe on Thursday 12 September called on the Maltese authorities to step up their efforts in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
Malta has been repeatedly criticised for the shortcomings of its anti-money laundering system, both by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12133/10) and by the European Banking Authority (see EUROPE 12061/27), in the Pilatus Bank case.
In a report, the MONEYVAL Committee points out that limited resources, both human and financial, negatively impact Malta's ability to effectively prosecute money laundering offences.
It also notes that, although Malta has a strong legal framework to combat terrorist financing, few investigations have been carried out to date and have not resulted in any prosecutions or convictions. The report thus concludes that the measures taken by the Maltese authorities are not fully in line with the country's actual exposure to possible terrorist financing risks.
Based on the results of its evaluation, MONEYVAL decided to apply its enhanced follow-up procedure and invited Malta to report back on progress made in December 2021. See the report: http://bit.ly/2mbsCep (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)