Malta hopes to get off the grey list of untrustworthy financial jurisdictions within 18 months, according to the lead expert tasked with getting back on the white list. 

Alfred Camilleri, the permanent secretary at the Finance Ministry on Tuesday told a conference that Malta had a “very ambitious” plan to get off the Financial Action Task Force grey list. 

He said that he and his team are working on an action plan which is almost in its final draft and had hit the ground running in its efforts to turn the ship around.

“We are very well advanced,” he said. 

Camilleri is the chairman of the National Coordination Committee on Combatting Money Laundering, which is responsible for getting Malta back onto the whitelist.  

His comments were echoed by Kenneth Farrugia who heads the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit and is also a senior member of the committee.  

He said there had been jurisdictions that managed to get off the grey list in 18 months. 

“I think we should follow suit and we should try our best to get off the list as soon as possible,” he said. 

The two were speaking during the first day of a two-day financial services conference organised by Finance Malta.  
  
Their comments contrast with those of a leading global expert who earlier this month said getting off the greyest could take longer than Malta hopes.  

Giuseppe Lombardo, who has evaluated several countries as a senior assessor for the Council of Europe’s MoneyVal, had told a similar conference it will be difficult to prove effective enforcement in certain “tricky” areas that Malta had failed in.