Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1387622
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 JUNE 2021 NEWS The Commission on Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Violence, within the Ministry for Justice, Equality and Governance, is seeking to recruit the following personnel: CLERK Jobsplus Permit No. 350/2021 For further details and application guidelines contact: Commission on Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Violence, Zentrum Business Centre, Triq l-Imdina, Qormi Phone 23279130 E-mail: stopviolence@gov.mt Health clarifies rules for UK visitors to Malta PAUL COCKS MALTA will start accepting the EU's Digital COVID Certificate and the UK's green passport as of Thursday 1 July, the health ministry said yesterday. A spokesperson for the min- istry confirmed that currently, Malta only recognises the local vaccine certificate. "As of 1st July Malta will also recognise the EU Digital COV- ID Certificate and UK green passports," the spokesperson said. The ministry said that from Wednesday, only fully vaccinat- ed persons can travel to Malta from the UK. They will need to present a UK two-dose certifi- cate before boarding. The EU's digital COVID certificate will be accepted as well. Children aged between five and 12 can travel if they accom- pany their vaccinated parents or legal guardian, provided they provide a negative nasopharyn- geal PCR test carried out within 72 hours from arrival in Malta. Children under five do not need a test. A Maltese resident or citizen not in possession of an accept- ed vaccine certificate can pro- MATTHEW VELLA MALTA'S greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has placed the island's financial jurisdiction under in- creased monitoring, the nation- al financial intelligence unit (FIAU) has told practitioners. But in an interpretative note published on Friday evening, the FIAU said Malta's mon- ey laundering rules, now that the island is greylisted by the FATF, hould not be interpreted as meaning that subject persons are required to apply enhanced due diligence (EDD) measures on all their Maltese customers. Now that Malta is part of the FATF process to ensure it ad- dresses specific remaining an- ti-money laundering deficien- cies, a number of obligations are triggered, which includes EDD measures than simple due diligence. However, although subject persons are required to assess the reputability and risk of a ju- risdiction to better understand the risks they are exposed to, this obligation is not to be in- terpreted as being also applica- ble to Maltese subject persons with respect to Malta itself. "Subject persons are not required to assess the juris- dictional risks arising from entertaining business relation- ships or conducting occasional transactions with Maltese or resident clients… subject per- sons are not expected, solely because of Malta's placement under increased monitoring by the FATF, to consider Malta as non-reputable or as a high-risk jurisdiction. "This development need not be considered as a trigger to re- vise or update the Business Risk Assessment or Customer Risk Assessments. Neither should this development, on its own, result in an intensification of AML/CFT measures, including the application of EDD, with respect to Maltese or Maltese resident customers, including bodies corporate and legal ar- rangements established in Mal- ta or having Maltese beneficial owners." Malta this week was placed under increased monitoring by the FATF, the first EU coun- try under this regime, together with Albania, Barbados, Bot- swana, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Ghana, Jamaica, Mau- ritius, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Haiti, the Philippines, and South Su- dan were also added to the list. The FIAU said that subject persons may therefore contin- ue to place reliance on other Maltese subject persons, and may equally continue to apply SDD on Maltese or resident customers in situations which are deemed to pose a low risk of money laundering. The Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations (PMLF- TR) and the FIAU Implement- ing Procedures (IPs) may lead subject persons to understand that now that Malta has been placed under increased FATF monitoring, enhanced due dil- igence measures (EDD) need to be applied by subject persons on all Maltese customers. Indeed, the FIAU was already receiving a number of queries from Maltese subject persons as to whether they are now re- quired to apply EDD on their Maltese customers, even if such customers do not present a higher risk of money launder- ing. EDD will continue to apply depending on obligations im- posed on subject persons by the country where they are located. Very often, these obligations reflect the standards set by the FATF which does not require the automatic application of EDD measures for customers linked to greylisted countries. The FATF itself said that it "does not call for the applica- tion of enhanced due diligence measures to be applied to these jurisdictions, but encourages its members to take into account the information presented be- low in their risk analysis." This means that the FATF ex- pects foreign subject persons to take into account the rea- sons for which their customer's country was placed under in- creased monitoring when car- rying out their customer risk assessment, and whether the reasons for this exposes them to a higher risk of money laun- dering. In Malta's case, the issues identified by the FATF remain very specific and narrow, and do not reflect issues that are widespread throughout the entire anti-money laundering framework of Malta. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Greylist does not mean enhanced due diligence on Maltese clients