“The MFSA is on track and well-prepared for the Moneyval assessment later on this year” said Joseph Cuschieri, CEO of the Malta Financial Services Authority in an interview with Malta Today.

Mr Cuschieri said a detailed action plan based on the Moneyval recommendations had been drawn up and is constantly being monitored in collaboration with the National Co-ordinating Committee within the Ministry of Finance. 

“The MFSA team is fully focused on ensuring a positive outcome for the MFSA. A positive Moneyval assessment for Malta is critical in ensuring that we remain a trusted international financial centre, maintain our competitiveness and continue growing the sector in a sustainable fashion in the long-term,” he asserted. 

“Grey-listing on the other hand will make it very challenging and difficult to operate as a European financial centre and may result in a contraction of the economy in general. This may also include the loss of US dollar correspondent banking due to the fact that Malta would be listed as a high-risk jurisdiction by the FATF – where as a result, jurisdictions dealing with Malta would need to apply enhanced due diligence checks and other risk mitigation actions which would make international trading and banking more challenging.”

However, the MFSA CEO said, “I personally believe that if we stay focused on the national Moneyval action plan with ‘all hands-on deck’, we should be able to avoid greylisting.”

As part of its efforts to avoid the damaging grey-listing, Mr Cuschieri said the MFSA is “raising the bar” in its supervisory and enforcement standards. We are already moving in this direction through the work being carried out by the MFSA, FIAU and other agencies.”

The CEO cites a number of actions undertaken by the Authority, including the updating of the Authority’s AML/CFT sectoral risk analysis, and investing in “capacity building, sourcing of international expertise and the setting up of a financial crime compliance unit. Having said this, the bottom line is all about effectiveness – our ability as a jurisdiction to enforce effectively cases relating to money laundering and expedite prosecutions and asset confiscations.”