Bank of Valletta this evening said it had strengthened its procedures for the opening of accounts by foreign companies and individuals after recommendations by an expert in March 2014.
The statement made reference to the article in today’s The Malta Independent online entitled ‘Joe Sammut arraignment to open a can of works for BOV and the PL’.
The banks said that while it cannot comment on its relationship with particular customers, it is incorrect to imply that BOV knowingly aided and abetted any intermediary to open accounts for illegitimate purposes. In fact in December 2013 as a matter of urgency the Board of Bank of Valletta commissioned an anti-money laundering expert with international experience to examine the processes that the Bank undertakes to open accounts for foreign individuals and corporates. This expert was also asked to determine whether proper and effective anti-money laundering checks were built in the system that BOV had been using for several years.
In his report the expert made a number of recommendations to strengthen the opening of accounts process for foreign individuals and companies. The Board discussed these recommendations in March 2014 and instructed the executive management to implement them as soon as possible, the bank said.
Amongst the more important recommendations were the articulation of the ‘Customers’ Acceptance Policy’ and the undertaking a new thorough due diligence exercise of all intermediaries to determine whether they were considered suitable to introduce new business to the bank. The Bank’s executive management conducted this detailed due diligence exercise on all intermediaries that introduced business to the Bank. Management presented their report to the Board in March 2015.
As a result of this extensive exercise a number of financial intermediaries, some of whom had been introducing new clients to the Bank for over a decade, were considered as not having the right set-up or anti-money laundering processes in place. In March 2015 the bank informed these intermediaries that it would no longer accept introductions from them to open accounts for foreign residents or companies.
Some of these intermediaries complained publicly in the local media about the Bank’s decisions. Others submitted formal appeals against the Bank’s decision to exclude them from introducing new business. None of these appeals have been entertained by the bank.
The bank said it takes its anti-money laundering obligations seriously and is in constant touch with banking regulators, the FIAU and the police to ensure that only bona fide clients have access to banking facilities.
The statement was issued after the bank had refued to give interviews to The Malta Independent on the subject.
BOV Chairman and CEO refuse interviews
In light of stories already revealed by this newsroom regarding alleged political influence at BOV, we asked for an interview with Chairman John Cassar White, which was politely turned down.
A second tentative was made by this newsroom to interview BOV’s CEO Charles Borg but even that was refused in a very polite reply to our emails.