The Chamber of Advocates has placed anti-money laundering as a high priority on its training agenda for this year, in a bid to support its members to be better equipped with the correct information and knowledge of compliance procedures, especially in view of the Moneyval Report published last year, calling on Maltese authorities to strengthen the practical application of measures to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism.
Recently in fact, the Chamber of Advocates reached an agreement with LEXCO, a company specialised in providing AML compliance services to Legal Professionals, Notaries, Accountants, Auditors, CSPs and other subject persons. Through this agreement, the Chamber will be outsourcing the AML compliance services, which it provided until recently, to LEXCO, who is in a position to assist members of the Chamber of Advocates in carrying out more thorough and comprehensive customer due diligence.
"The MONEYVAL report places heavy responsibilities on Malta to strengthen its measures and procedures to step up its efforts to investigate and prosecute money laundering and to strengthen its supervisory system. The Chamber of Advocates is committed to supporting Malta in achieving the desired standards in this regard and has placed this commitment very high on its agenda for this year," said Dr Stefan Camilleri, the Chamber's Secretary General.
"Through our partnering with LEXCO, the Chamber will also be assisting its members to receive high level training and will provide the opportunity to acquire comprehensive skills in the field, whilst benefiting from a more practical approach to Customer Due Diligence and Customer Risk Assessment procedures," added Dr Camilleri.
As a result of this agreement, the Chamber of Advocates will also be organising at least 4 Anti-Money Laundering training and information sessions for lawyers planned throughout the year, in collaboration with LEXCO, Camilleri Preziosi Advocates and the FIAU.
The first three-hour training session will take place on the 30th of January between 14.00 and 17.00 hrs at the Chamber of Advocates' Conference Hall and will be delivered by Dr Malcolm Mallia from LEXCO and Dr Diane Bugeja from Camilleri Preziosi Advocates. The training is open to all lawyers who are members or non-members of the Chamber. Besides providing a legal background and an overview of the main obligations, the programme will also tackle Customer Due Diligence, Customer Risk Assessment and practical AML issues. A number of case studies will also be discussed.
Participation fee will be €20 for Chamber members and €25 for non-members and bookings and payment can be done online on: https://central.mt/product/amltraining/
The Chamber of Advocates' planned upcoming events related to Anti-Money Laundering training are as follows:
30 January 2020 AML Training on AML/CFT - An overview
04 March 2020 AML Information Session on Risk Evaluation Questionnaire (REQ)
07 May 2020 AML Practical Session on Suspicious Transaction Reporting (STR)
14 October 2020 AML Training session (details to be communicated at a later date)