Malta passes Moneyval: island no longer 'non-compliant', report says
Malta has demonstrated “significant progress” in fighting money-laundering and terrorism financing, an assessment by Moneyval has found. The Council of Europe anti-money laundering body said on Thursday that Malta has succeeded to meet general expectations after a raft of deficiencies were first identified by Moneyval in 2019. The country has achieved full compliance with twelve of the 40 recommendations on how to improve its anti-money laundering regime, its report said. Malta retains minor deficiencies in the implementation of another twenty-eight recommendations where it has been found “largely compliant”. Moneyval said Malta no longer has “non-compliant” or “partially compliant” ratings. However, Moneyval decided that Malta will remain in what is known as the enhanced follow-up procedure, meaning the authorities will have to report back to the expert group on further progress to strengthen its implementation of anti-money laundering measures. The report will not come as a surprise - in April, Times of Malta revealed it had formally passed the review. What does the report mean? Whilst the new report means that Malta has been given a pass mark by Moneyval on technical...