Alfred Sant calls for anti-money laundering measures to be implemented in full

Former Prime Minister Alfred Sant has called for anti-money laundering measures to be fully implemented across the board, and those who have difficulties catching up with ongoing reforms should be helped to do so.

In an explanation of his vote in favour of a resolution by the European Parliament on the state of implementation of the European Union’s anti-money laundering legislation, Dr Sant noted that abolition of capital controls opens the doors for money laundering, and globalization has multiplied the opportunities for it.

Alfred Sant stressed that antimoney laundering legislation is more complex than capital controls and is intended to extinguish money laundering. However, according to Dr Sant, it still seemed to be lagging behind, conceptually and in the implementation of measures.

Sant said that, for financial services, this holds true in the largest jurisdictions and even more so in small ones.

“When the financial services sector undergoes a significant expansion, the difficulties are compounded, especially if a substantial part of the industry was intermediated by small operators as is the case of Malta,” said Dr Sant.

Referring to the recent MONEYVAL report, Dr Sant stated that, while identifying weaknesses, it highlighted that Malta had a sound legal framework to address money laundering issues. Dr Sant noted that the Maltese government was committed to implementing all MONEYVAL recommendations.

Sant added that a national antimoney laundering strategy was in place in Malta and was being strengthened not least by allocating significant new resources to it.