French and Maltese anti-corruption organizations, Sherpa and II-Kenniesa, request to MONEYVAL, a monitoring body of the Council of Europe entrusted with the task of assessing compliance with the principal international standards in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism (AML/FT), to monitor the practices of the Maltese Services Financial Authority (MFSA), and to take into account in particular the Pilatus Bank case in the setting of the 5th Round Evaluation of Malta.

This comes after, the European Banking Authority's damning report which found "general and systematic shortcomings" in the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit's (FIAU) application of anti-money laundering directives with regard to the infamous Pilatus Bank.

It also said that the FIAU breached anti-money laundering directives.

Pilatus bank was authorized by the Malta Financial Services Authority in 2014.

Both the MFSA and the FIAU carried out on-site inspections, with the latter initially saying that there were serious breaches of AML/CFT requirements. After a follow-up visit, the FIAU had said that the issues raised previously have now been closed.

The MFSA froze the assets of Pilatus Bank after its owner Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad was indicted in the United States in relation to allegations to a number of financial crimes. He has since been released on bail in the USA, on serious conditions.

Sherpa and Kenniesa stressed the stress the importance of MONEYVAL's role as a leading international partner in the global network of AML / CFT evaluation bodies and as an associate member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

In a statement, the groups also noted that assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia had reported heavily on the activities of Pilatus Bank.