NICOLE MEILAK
PILATUS Bank has been fined
€4,975,500 by the money laun-
dering watchdog after it identi-
fied "very serious and systemic"
failures in the bank's obligation
to guard against financial crime.
The penalty imposed by the
Financial Intelligence Analysis
Unit was communicated today
after a three-year supervisory
examination of client accounts
and bank procedures.
In its publication notice, the
FIAU identified 11 red flags that
they deemed should have raised
the bank's suspicion on its cus-
tomers' activity.
It turns out that the infor-
mation available to the bank
at onboarding significantly di-
verged from the customers'
actual activity, and substantial
amounts of funds were being
passed through various entities
in incredibly short time periods
without a valid reason.
Internal transfers within the
bank between various entities
having the same beneficial own-
ership were being cleared off by
the bank as mere internal trans-
fers, as were monies transferred
on behalf of the
entities' owners.
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EDITORIAL • PAGE 11
PAGE 3
Pilatus Bank hit with €5
million penalty by FIAU
Pope Francis
may visit Malta
at the end of
November
Pope Francis
KURT SANSONE
POPE Francis may visit Malta
at the end of November but no
dates have been confirmed yet,
MaltaToday has learnt.
Sources close to the plans,
who spoke on condition of an-
onymity, said the Vatican has so
far not confirmed when the visit
will happen.
It remains unclear whether
the Malta visit will be combined
with a visit to Cyprus, which
according to a Cypriot govern-
ment source will happen in De-
cember.
The Roman Catholic pontiff
is expected to visit Cyprus on 2
and 3 December, according to
a Cypriot government official
who spoke anonymously with
Associated Press news agency
on Tuesday. Little else is known
about the itinerary. Vatican
spokesman Matteo Bruni did
not confirm or
deny the Cyprus
trip.
PAGE 6
Pilatus Bank
