Identity Malta received 578 applications under the Individual Investor Programme between January and December 2015, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici told parliament tonight.

Answering a question put by opposition MP Paula Mifsud Bonnici, he said that 476 applicants had provided all the necessary documentation and had passed to the second stage of scrutiny. Of these, 147 were approved and 54 had been through the whole process and were granted Maltese citizenship. He said that 102 applications have not goen through to the second phase of scrutiny because not all the necessary documentation was supplied, or they had been been refused outright.