Malta’s anti-money laundering policies have formally passed the test of Moneyval, the committee of anti-money laundering experts of the Council of Europe, which during a plenary session held in Strasbourg on Thursday 29 April, approved the final report.
This is a very important judgment for the Mediterranean island, which in case of negative evaluation would have ended up in a “grey list” of countries considered unreliable taken into account by the global financial and banking system: a result that would have led to inevitable negative consequences for the economy of the country.
Although the evaluation report is still top secret until it is officially published by Moneyval, probably next summer, Maltese newspapers through reliable sources have been able to confirm the positive judgment arrived at with respect to the examination of the reforms implemented over the last year by the Maltese government against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Moneyval’s assessment will now pass into the hands of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international supervisory body on this matter, which, taking note of the checks carried out in Europe, will have to update the “grey list” of unreliable countries.
Moneyval’s judgment, which according to some would have downgraded Malta’s economic development over the last ten years, leading to a flight of companies from the country, removes any doubts about the direction taken by the government, which has aligned its policies with the standards of European and Western countries while maintaining high standards of competitiveness and attractiveness to new investors.
With this assessment and a pandemic emergency that that seems to be coming to an end, Malta is ready for the great relaunch.
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