Maltese Government Sheds Light On Proposed Anti-Money Laundering Measures

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-news.com, Cyprus

25 September 2001

Having expressed Malta's commitment to the international anti-money laundering fight at an MFSC conference last week, Finance Minister John Dalli has now shed some light on new measures proposed by the jurisdiction.

He announced that the government would be setting up a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) over the next few months, to act as a buffer between financial institutions and the police, and revealed that a bill outlining the functions, structure, power, and limitations of the Unit had already been drafted.

Suspicious transactions are at present reported directly to the country's law enforcement agency, but this is by no means ideal, as Attorney General Silvio Camilleri, also present at the conference, explained. According to Mr Camilleri, the police force do not necessarily have the financial expertise or experience to deal with the report in the appropriate way, and may act too quickly as a result. The FIU, he said, would have the required expertise, which might reassure the reporting institutions.

Mr Dalli outlined the proposed role for the four member unit for the assembled attendees: 'The financial intelligence unit will be the recipient of suspicious transaction reports...and will be empowered to request any information it may deem necessary in order to supplement reports and to transmit such reports to the police where it has reasonable grounds to suspect money laundering,' he explained.

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