Grey List No More As Malta Removed From FATF’s List
Malta has finally made it out of the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list after being on the list for an entire year.
Reported by the Times of Malta, a secret vote was taken earlier today by the FATF, which will then be made official later this week.
Malta was first put on the grey list in June 2021 due to concerns over the efficacy of its money laundering regime, particularly with regards the use of financial intelligence to pursue criminal tax and related money laundering cases, and the accuracy of its beneficial ownership system.
Malta’s greylisting raised serious concerns about the nation’s economic future, with 88% of businesses who responded to a Malta Employers Association survey stating it will have a negative impact.
It also resulted in fresh layers of bureaucracy in the financial services industry, with PN MP Graham Bencini warning last year that processing banking transactions had become practically impossible.
Greylisting also turned into a political controversy, with PN leader Bernard Grech pledging ahead of last March’s election that a new PN government would get the country off the grey list within the first 100 days.
Grech expressed his satisfaction at today’s news but said that “Malta’s name should never have been tarnished internationally the way it has over the past nine years”.
“The PN will keep on playing its part for the country to progress,” he said.
Prime Minister Robert Abela said he will wait for an official FATF announcement before making a statement.
The FATF grey list – officially referred to as Jurisdiction Under Increased Monitoring – is different from being blacklisted, with greylisting binding the country to working with FATF to implement the necessary reforms.
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