FATF grey-listing assessors in Malta for final review

Financial Action Task Force assessors are in Malta to meet with government officials before deciding whether to take the island off its so-called grey list of untrustworthy jurisdictions.

A panel of experts from the FATF arrived in Malta to carry out an onsite assessment of the country this week, sources within the government said.

The FATF team will be meeting with a specially set up team of Maltese officials to decide whether enough has been done to merit the island being taken off the organisation’s grey list.

Their visit is expected to last three days.

If they give the country the thumbs up, Malta could be voted off the grey list as early as June, when the FATF plenary holds its next meeting.

Members of the global anti-money laundering watchdog voted to add Malta to its grey list in June 2021 after deciding the country was not doing enough to combat financial crime.

Since then, the government has been scrambling to address shortcomings flagged by the FATF, particularly in information sharing and issues of tax evasion.

Those issues are at the heart of an FATF action plan which Malta agreed to implement in order to be given a clean bill of health by the global anti-money laundering body.

Last month, the FATF publicly announced that initial indications showed Malta had substantially completed its action plan and appeared to have addressed the shortcomings identified when it placed Malta on its grey list.

The onsite visit taking place this week will decide whether Malta has put these reforms into action and following up on those changes in practice.