Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

MONEYVAL is a Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism that was established in 1997. This evaluation and peer pressure mechanism reviews the anti-money laundering measures and measures to counter the financing of terrorism in Council of Europe member States (and Council of Europe applicants which apply to join the terms of reference) which are not members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The 3rd round evaluation report on Malta, as adopted at MONEYVAL’s 24th Plenary meeting (10-14 September 2007) and published late November 2007.


Read MONEYVAL report on Malta

The majority of Maltese believe it is very easy to evade income tax and conduct undeclared work, according to a new EU survey.
It is interesting to observe that data are not available in Ireland and Luxembourg.

read article

EU survey

On 16 May 2007, the European Commission concluded that Malta has achieved a high degree of sustainable economic convergence with the other Member States and that it fulfils the necessary conditions to adopt the euro. On the basis of its Convergence Report, the Commission is proposing to the Council that Malta adopts the euro on 1 January 2008. The final decision will be taken by EU finance ministers in July, after consultation of the European Parliament, and following a discussion by the Heads of State or Government at their summit in June.

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Since the begining of the year, several cases of money laundering were in the media in Malta and the justice is doing its job.

See recent articles from The Malta Independant:

Another Panamanian national was charged yesterday with money laundering involving a sum of about Lm10,000. (31/03/07)

Court: First case of money laundering in the Criminal Court: Woman jailed for six years (30/03/07)

Court: Foreigner charged with money laundering (29/03/07)

Four face £1.4m in money-laundering charges (20/01/07)

Court: Criminal Court imposes stiffer bail conditions (05/01/07)

FIU Malta strives to be a leader in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing thus contributing towards a safe and stable financial and economic environment. It works towards this mission through information collection, analysis and co-operation in the dissemination of information suspected of money laundering or terrorist financing related activities thus supporting the domestic and international law enforcement
investigative efforts.
The last annual report provides information on the way AML-CFT requirements are implemented in Malta.


See report

The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) is the single regulator for financial services activities in Malta. It regulates and supervises credit and financial institutions, investment, trust and insurance business and also houses the country's Companies Registry.
Since January 2, 2004, the MFSA informs the public of all breaches of financial services licence conditions which have given rise to the imposition of a fine or any other administrative measure, giving the name of the licence holder and the sanction imposed by the Authority. The publication of this information takes place only after the exhaustion of all possible appeals at law from the decision of the Authority.
There are not many cases and the amount of fines is not dissuasive enough (Lm 100 up to to Lm 1000 i.e. EUR 233 up to EUR 2330).

See website