The government is fully committed to continue investing in the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit and the police’s Financial Crime Investigation Department as it seeks to strengthen ways with which it obtains intelligence to fight corruption and money laundering, Prime Minister Robert Abela said today.

He was addressing members of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development following Malta’s grey listing by the Financial Action Task Force last week. Malta became the first EU country to be greylisted by the financial watchdog.

Abela said that the MCESD “is the ideal forum for discussing such a sensitive issue [...] this is a discussion on facts rather than spin-offs”.

Various members of the MCESD had voiced their concerns on Malta’s grey listing. Abela said that he appreciated the fact that even though concerns were raised, the work done by the institutions in the previous months had been recognised.

“As from January of this year, we started working on a programme to change things for the better [...] we can no longer have a dismissive attitude,” Abela said.

The FATF report highlighted three major areas for improvement, Abela said. These areas tackle subjects such as tax evasion, money laundering and also beneficial ownership sanctions. “In the action plan proposed by the government we are aiming at tackling these areas without affecting legitimate business,” the Prime Minister said.

The lack of intelligence in tax evasion cases was also an important issue highlighted in the FATF report.

“That’s why as a government we are fully committed to continue investing in the FIAU and FCID to continue our fight against corruption,” Abela said

Abela remarked that the Labour government invested 20 times more in these financial crime regulating institutions than what had been invested by the Nationalist government.

“If we want to be an international centre of investment and gaming opportunities, we have to be excellent financial regulators,” Abela said. He also said that this has been the aim of this government before the grey listing Malta was given by the FATF.

Abela said that the government will always continue its fight against corruption. “We will be addressing the FATF recommendations in the shortest time possible,” Abela concluded.