Henley & Partners stands to make at least €60m from its role as designer and principal contractor for Malta’s citizenship scheme, London’s The Independent has reported.

The newspaper said the Jersey-registered firm is due to begin processing its first applicants next month.

It criticised Malta for offering a passport within months with a minimal requirement for individuals to be resident.

But yesterday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced further changes to the scheme, including the introduction of a requirement for residence status for one year. The changes were agreed with the European Commission.

In spite of the changes, the newspaper said industry experts described the terms of the scheme, which also provided the right to visa-free travel to 69 non-EU countries, including the United States, as a “game changer”.

The Independent said that the company’s Canadian chief executive Eric Major said Henley had received “hundreds” of expressions of interest.

The scheme, it said, was "in stark contrast" to Malta’s attitude to less-moneyed visitors.

"The EU’s smallest state was last year fined by the European Court of Human Rights after it was found that some of the thousands of migrants who land on its shores from North Africa were kept in conditions that amounted to inhuman or degrading treatment."

The EU Observer also reported on the scheme saying the Maltese government introduced obligatory residence into the scheme under tremendous pressure from the European Commission.