The number of suspicious reports and intelligence reports at Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit skyrocketed in 2021 with the unit working tirelessly amid Malta’s greylisting and Moneyval recommendations. 

In 2021, 7,218 suspicious reports were filed, an increase of over 2,000 when compared with 2020. Meanwhile, the unit shared 8,443 intelligence reports with both national and international competent authorities, an 86% increase from the previous year.

The figures, which were released as part of the FIAU’s annual report for 2021, also showed that over 70 analytical reports were filed to the police indicating a reasonable suspicion of money laundering and other financial crime.

There were over 400 other disseminations consisting of additional intelligence reports and spontaneous intelligence reports.

It yielded major results with almost €10,000,000 in administrative fines being dished out to financial institutions and a further €1,100,000 to entities outside the financial sector.

“These results clearly show that although 2021 was a very challenging year, the team at the FIAU continued to work relentlessly to improve its operations,” the FIAU said. 

2021 was a challenging year for all of Malta with the country being placed on the FATF grey list in June. However, Malta has since managed to get off the list after meeting the requirements set out in the FATF action plan, which included improved sharing of information.

After the greylisting, the FIAU put in extensive work to implement the action plan and increase the effectiveness in the three areas of concern.

“Despite the FATF outcome, 2021 was nevertheless considered a successful year, with a number of significant achievements and improvements having taken place to further improve Malta’s AML/CFT framework,” the FIAU said.

Beyond the dramatic increase in reports, improvements to the FIAU’s technological tools were also made. These included ongoing updates and further development to the FIAU’s IT operating systems for submission of suspicious reports and for risk assessments.

Meanwhile, there was an increase in training and the number of staff to help the FIAU deal with its workload. The current headcount at the FIAU is 115.

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