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3 FATF GREY LISTING NEWS 24.6.2021 FROM PAGE 1 In a press conference with finance min- ister Clyde Caruana, Prime Minister Rob- ert Abela described the FATF's decision as "unfair" but insisted Malta would con- tinue engaging in dialogue. "What I can and will say today is this: we will never be uncooperative or ob- structive. We will continue working with a determination greater than ever before," he said. Abela insisted that Malta would over- come this challenge, just as it had man- aged the COVID-19 pandemic. Caruana said the government would continue building on the good that was there, "while strengthening what needs to be strengthened". e FATF's decision comes despite Mal- ta's adherence to a Moneyval assessment in which it achieved a high compliance rate on various recommendations. But the decision comes at the tail-end of years in which Malta's Labour admin- istration presided over a weakening of anti-money laundering rules: from the sale of citizeship to high net-worth indi- viduals, criticised by the European Com- mission; to the harsh light on its Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit and inaction on the Panama Papers when the prime min- ister's right-hand man was revealed to have set up a secret offshore firm, Malta was never too far off from international scrutiny. Under the German Presidency of Mar- cus Pleyer, delegates representing 205 members of the FATF global network and observer organisations including the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations and the Egmont Group of Finan- cial Intelligence Units took part in the vir- tual meeting of the FATF Plenary. During five days, they discussed key is- sues to strengthen global action against the financial flows that fuel crime and terrorism. e wording of the recommendation FATF members were asked to vote on was not made available to MaltaToday by the international organisation, which said its internal discussions are confidential. e organisation, which serves as a watchdog against money laundering and terrorist financing, is currently run by the German presidency. A senior source within one of the is- land's regulatory authorities said it was "unfortunate that the decision-making process had taken a political twist". He insisted that Malta had implemented all the technical and legal recommendations made by Moneyval. 'A devastating blow' e Malta Empoyers Association de- scribed the deicision by the Financial Action Task Force to greylist Malta as "a devastating blow for the Maltese econo- my which will stretch its resilience to its limit". "Unlike the COVID pandemic, this crisis is entirely self-inflicted and the result of lax and corrupt practices by a minority of dishonest politicians and businesses, compounded with ineffec- tive governance systems," the MEA said in a statement. e MEA said the greylisting was un- precedented and humiliating for Malta. "We are all aware that, as a small econo- my, the cards are often stacked against us, but we must also wake up to the realisa- tion that we brought this on ourselves if we are truly committed to emerge from this disaster." FATF decision 'unjust', Prime Minister says FATF outcome report expected Friday NICOLE MEILAK DESCRIBING Malta's greylisting as 'unjust', Prime Minister Robert Abela insisted that government will respect the decision taken and work hand- in-hand with the FATF to resolve any shortcomings. Abela was addressing a press confer- ence in reaction to Malta's greylisting by the FATF despite strong adherence to a Moneyval assessment in which it achieved a high compliance rate on var- ious recommendations. "I believe that this decision was un- just for our country, but I will bow my head to the verdict out of respect to the institution," he said during journalist's question time. He added that government will not be stomping its feet in this respect, and will engage in dialogue with interna- tional and local stakeholders to remedy the matter. "We will never be uncooperative or obstructive. We will continue working with greater determination than ever before." e Prime Minister remained tight- lipped on the details of the FATF ver- dict, explaining that it is FATF pro- cedure to eventually issue an official statement with an explanation given then. Abela admitted that episodes like the Panama Papers did not help in this de- cision, and when prompted on the cit- izenship-by-investment programme, said that government has always worked to improve this scheme. Apart from this, Abela praised both the public and private sectors for the work carried out with respect to the FATF greylisting, as well as in the con- text of the Venice Commission recom- mendations. Abela was also asked about whether the vote taken was a political one. To this he said that he would rather believe that the FATF is objective in their deci- sions, and that the decision was taken in this way. "As a person who believes in the neu- trality of institutions, I prefer to believe that this isn't the case, but we can't ever know what is happening behind closed doors," he said. Earlier on Wednesday, the Opposition proposed that a task force be set up to oversee the implementation of the FATF action plan. In response to this, Abela clarified that a National Coordinating Commit- tee is already tasked with doing this. Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said that he is not expecting any major shocks to the economy or to the coun- try's finances. He explained that all the possible re- sults of this decision have already been internalised by the economy, and no major impacts will be felt overnight. "What we're talking about here is a process that the country will follow so that certain shortcomings are ad- dressed," he said. He added that government will work hand-in-hand with the private sector to overcome any challenges that will arise from the greylisting. He also assured concerned employers that the govern- ment will be behind them to alleviate any impacts felt. Prime minister Robert Abela and finance minister Clyde Caruana addressing the press conference

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