Deutsche Bank has made the decision to stop offering its banking services in Malta by the end of the year.

The decision to pull the plug will mainly affect smaller banks in foreign financial markets while HSBC and BOV will remain, for the most part, unaffected by the decision, as they do not rely on the German bank to clear their dollar transactions.

However, most banks impacted by this decision will most likely have a correspondent bank as a contingency.

The decision comes in light of several branches of scrutiny, both towards Malta’s handling of financial crimes and Deutsche Bank’s procession of dirty money.

As a result, Deutsche Bank has scaled back considerably and has decided to withdraw from Malta as part of its new strategy.

The ramifications of this decision could negatively impact the country’s appeal for international companies who will now have to operate without easy access to dollar transactions.

Although reports claim that this message has been communicated to local banks an authorities earlier this month, there has been no official announcement declaring Deutsche Bank’s withdrawal from the country.

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