Malta’s road ahead for de-listing

Financial crime has long posed a deep-rooted challenge for international financial jurisdictions; however, it has become much more complex in recent years with the rise of technology. Online and often complex financial transactions and products and cryptocurrencies have opened new opportunities for criminals.

International institutions have rushed to adapt to these developments, with a wave of regulations being developed over the past decade. In recent years, international standards have also been revised in line with the risk-based approach to strengthen the requirements for higher risk situations, allowing countries to take a more focused approach in areas where high risks remain or where implementation is not effective enough.

For long years, Malta had demonstrated conformity with such requirements and even the most-recent Moneyval assessment confirmed that the country has a high level of technical compliance with the international standards and has the right legislation in place. Yet, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’S decision to place Malta under increased monitoring (the so-called grey list) indicated that further efforts are needed to ensure that the Maltese anti-money laundering system is effective and yields the intended results. To achieve this objective, an action plan has been agreed between Malta and the FATF, together with a political commitment to implement it within agreed timeframes. The implementation of the FATF action plan is backed by the commitment of all Maltese authorities to take a significant number of actions resulting in deliverables that are intended to achieve the level of effectiveness expected by the FATF, and to do so sustainably.