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So, As It Turns Out, Romania Wasn’t Actually Greylisted By The FATF Yesterday

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Malta was yesterday rocked by the news that the Financial Action Task Force had voted to place Malta on its grey list of jurisdictions requiring increased monitoring.

The outcome of the vote has dominated the headlines over the past months, as the Maltese government scrambled to implement as many of the recommendations made in order for it to avoid the potentially catastrophic development. 

As the day developed, it became clear that Malta’s efforts were not going to be enough, until the dreaded moment arrived. 

Leaks from the Maltese government confirmed that Malta had in fact been greylisted, but it was stated that Romania had also been greylisted, meaning that Malta was not the only EU member state to make the list. 

But it turns out that this wasn’t the case. In fact, reports in the international press make no mention of Romania. 

Lovin Malta has also been in contact with members of the Romanian press, all of whom said they had not heard anything about any greylisting. 

The website AML Intelligence cited sources saying that not only had Romania not been added to the grey list, but the country hasn’t even had its mutual evaluation yet.

Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi also uploaded a Facebook post yesterday in which he too said that it did not appear that Romania had been greylisted. 

“It appears that Romania has not been greylisted. Only Malta. The first and only EU country to have been greylisted,” Azzopardi wrote.

It isn’t clear how Romania got added to the mix, though given that the FATF hasn’t issued any official communication about the results of yesterday’s plenary, it would appear that the information came from Maltese government officials involved in Malta’s efforts to pass the assessment.

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READ NEXT: Here's How Ministers Reacted To Malta's 'Unjust' Greylisting

Yannick joined Lovin Malta in March 2021 having started out in journalism in 2016. He is passionate about politics and the way our society is governed, and anything to do with numbers and graphs. He likes dogs more than he does people.

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