Times of Malta reported that an assessment by Moneyval has deemed Malta to have made significant progress in fighting money-laundering and terrorism financing. Malta was reported on Thursday to have succeeded in meeting expectations by The Council of Europe anti-money laundering body. After a set of deficiencies were highlighted back in 2019, the country has acquired full compliance with 12 of the 40 recommendations on how to improve the situation.
Still, Malta has minor deficiencies in the implementation of 28 other recommendations, in which the country has been deemed ‘largely compliant.’ Moneyval still kept Malta in the enhanced follow-up procedure which means authorities will have to report back on further progress. Despite this being a pass mark for Malta, the risk of grey listing still remains.
Grey-listing means the country will receive a strict reform procedure and ‘hand-holding’ by global authorities. This serves as a sign to global financial systems that the country in question poses heightened risks. The decision is up to the Assessors from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
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Photo Source: Health Europa