The Maltese government has stuck its description of the FATF’s decision to greylist Malta as undeserved, but has committed to addressing the shortcomings raised by the international body in the “shortest time frame possible.”

In a statement published in reaction to the FATF’s press conference on Friday, the government said that it had moved to address all 58 of the actions recommended by Moneyval in 2019.

“During the 18 months following the MER publication, Malta implemented several reforms across the board, both on technical matters, but more importantly, in practical terms. Indeed, as recognized by the FATF, Malta addressed all but 3 recommended actions which were nonetheless recognized by the FATF plenary as being addressed, albeit to a partial extent”, the government said.

Malta was thus recommended to: (i) further increase the focus of the FIAU’s financial analysis on serious tax offences and related money laundering; (ii) increase the use of financial intelligence in pursuing criminal tax and related money laundering cases; and (iii) improve the identification of inaccurate beneficial ownership information provided by Maltese legal persons, and the application of dissuasive, effective and proportionate sanctions on legal persons and subject persons for failure to comply with their beneficial ownership obligations.

“Although Malta demonstrated a clear determination to address all 58 recommended actions, as evidenced by the number of actions and changes implemented by Malta in the 18-month period following the 2019 MER, the FATF still considered that the aforementioned 3 recommended actions were not sufficiently addressed”, the government noted.

“Malta firmly believes that it does not deserve to be subject to increased monitoring considering the plethora of reforms implemented that led to tangible progress in Malta’s ability to prevent, detect and combat money laundering and the funding of terrorism effectively”, the statement continued.

Nevertheless, the government said that Malta “has been and will remain fully committed to working with the FATF and other international partners to ensure that the partially addressed recommended actions are addressed within the shortest possible timeframes.”

The Government thanked all the authorities and stakeholders from within the public and private sectors alike that worked tirelessly throughout this process to ensure that our country has a robust AML/CFT framework in place, and showed its appreciation to the “numerous” jurisdictions that supported Malta and put forward the view that Malta did indeed make sufficient and tangible progress.