Malta is "cracking down" on money laundering but has "more work to do", the Financial Action Task Force president said as the country was officially removed from a list of untrustworthy financial jurisdictions. 

Marcus Pleyer formally announced on Friday the decision to remove Malta from the so-called grey list, as he also revealed that Gibralta has been added to it.

In a statement, the FATF said Malta had made "significant progress" and had "strengthened the effectiveness" of its anti-money laundering regime to combat the "strategic deficiencies" the body had highlighted last year.

Explaining the decision to take Malta off the list, Pleyer said the island had doubled the resources of its business registry and conducted a thorough risk assessment.  

Malta, he said, had successfully identified companies that conceal their true owners. 

“So you can clearly see that Malta is applying effective penalties against gate keepers, and by gate keepers I mean; lawyers, accountants - corporate service providers, people who open the door to the financial sector,” he said.  

Marcus Pleyer, FATF president outlined why Malta was removed from the grey list.

Pleyer said that the majority of concealed ownership uncovered in Malta were foreign-owned companies that had now been clamped down on.  

“So you can see that Malta is now effectively cracking down on a major money laundering risk,” he said.

'More work to do'

Mapping out the road that Malta has travelled, Pleyer said that after serious deficiencies were identified last year, Malta agreed to an action plan with FATF.  

“A successful onsite inspection was carried out by FATF in April and the FATF congratulates Malta on being removed from the list,” he said

The president of the body said that this “doesn’t mean there isn’t more work to do.”

Grey listing was 'technical' decision

Malta, he said, must continue to sustain its improvements to its anti-money laundering a terrorist financing regime”.

Asked by Times of Malta about local criticism that the island never desevered to be grey listed, Pleyer dismissed this outright. 

Since its greylisting, Malta has taken dozens of enforcement actions gate keepers who obscure beneficial ownership, he said.

Pleyer said this is contrasted against the zero fines issued prior to being placed on the list.  

“So this proves that it was technically the way to go forward and that this was a decision taken on technical grounds,” he said.

In a statement the body said Malta had made progress related to the detection of inaccurate company ownership information and sanctions on gatekeepers who fail to obtain accurate beneficial ownership information, as well as the pursuit of tax-based money laundering cases utilising financial intelligence. 

Malta was voted off the grey list on Wednesday, one year after first being labelled an untrustworthy financial jurisdiction by the global watchdog. 

Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory, was added to the list. In a statement, the FATF said Gibraltar needs to ensure that its supervisory authorities effectively clamp down on money laundering breaches. It also needs to confiscate more assets derived from crime.

What is greylisting? 

Members of the global anti-money laundering watchdog first added Malta to its grey list in June 2021 after deciding the country was not doing enough to combat financial crime. 

The greylisting decision came following years of international criticism of Maltese policymaking, including its decision to sell Maltese citizenship and the lack of legal action against top government officials suspected of corruption.

Being placed on the grey list meant the country was put under increased scrutiny by international assessors and bodies. 

The decision to take Malta off the list came four months after the FATF publicly announced that initial indications showed that Malta had substantially completed the necessary reforms and appeared to have addressed the shortcomings identified. 

Malta had been told to implement a long list of changes to the way it combats tax evasion, collects information on ultimate beneficial ownership, and the way it shares information with local and international authorities.