The Prime Minister comments in the first MCESD meeting for 2021 as Malta awaits Moneyval feedback by the end of the month

In this morning’s meeting with the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development Prime Minister of Malta Robert Abela stated that he is convinced Malta will pass the Moneyval test and satisfy all the requirements.

Today’s meeting was centered around governance. Both PM Robert Abela and Minister Carmelo Abela stressed on reforms taken by the government in order to strengthen governmental institutions.

Malta failed Moneyval’s assessment back in 2019 and was given a year to improve its status in terms of money laundering and terrorist financing. Last October, the Maltese government submitted its final report for evaluation. The report is expected to be handed back to the government later on this month. The Prime Minister assured that the government has ticked all the boxes when it comes to issues flagged by Moneyval.

The Prime Minister said ‘In a short amount of time we carried out reforms without precedent. We worked to foster discipline and seriousness, and strengthen institutions that required changes.’

In a previous interview on ONE radio held in the beginning of the month Abela stated:

‘We implemented the changes put forward by Moneyval and I remind everyone that for years since 2012, Moneyval was proposing changes and reforms that needed to take place in our country and we were the government that implemented what was requested. Today, I believe we are on the road to satisfy all Moneyval asked of us so that in a few months time we would have the result we want.’

The decision on whether or not Malta is greylisted will be taken by another body, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

This body will ultimately decide if Malta is put on the grey list, and will factor in Moneyval’s final position. There are currently no European countries listed on the grey list.

The current list includes Albania, the Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Ghana, Iceland, Jamaica, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.