Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday said that Malta’s regulators would be making contact with Commerzbank AG in the coming days to discuss its position on no longer accepting declarations made by local audit firms.

The Malta Independent on Sunday revealed e-mail correspondence between Commerzbank – a major international bank and the second biggest in Germany – and a client where it stated that the bank is no longer accepting declarations by local audit firms. It also stated that facts would have to be checked by the Frankfurt unit of the client’s local audit firm, “especially in relation to the application of money laundering accusations”.

Dr Muscat tried to deny the story for two days running stating he had received the opposite information, however after The Malta Independent published the e-mail correspondence, the Prime Minister asked the regulators to make contact with Commerzbank to clarify their position.

He committed himself to publishing the outcome as soon as discussions are concluded.

Asked about any updates, Dr Muscat said: “As far as I know contact will be made between the regulators and Commerzbank in the coming days on all this, as soon as I have details I will be relaying them”.

Questions were sent to Commerzbank for an explanation on why and when they changed their policy, but they refused to reply without seeing the full e-mail. This would have only served to identify the source so this newsroom respectfully declined to release the e-mail.

The Malta Institute of Accountants has expressed its concern on the ongoing issue.