Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/898252
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2017 News 3 One year on, government now planning to introduce four new registers CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE But more than a year after Muscat attended the London summit, proposed changes to money laundering legislation currently before Parliament make no mention of the reg- istries. The changes transpose only part of the directive. Shadow minister Mario de Marco pointed out this fail- ing last Monday when talking about the proposed amend- ments, which focus exclusive- ly on bolstering the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit. "As we speak, we have no idea how and if the govern- ment intends to transpose the requirement to set up a public registry of ultimate beneficial owners," de Marco said when contacted. However, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna told Mal- taToday yesterday the rules associated with ultimate beneficial owners were being drafted and would be trans- posed in four new sets of reg- ulations. He said the plan was to have four registers dealing with ultimate beneficial owners of companies, trusts, foun- dations and associations. "These are in the final stag- es of drafting and should be issued for a brief period of consultation shortly. Then they will need to be pub- lished by legal notice," Sci- cluna said. The legal notices will intro- duce registers of real owners under three different laws: the Companies Act to deal with companies, the Trusts and Trustees Act to deal with trusts and the Civil Code to deal with foundations and associations. Scicluna said the Bill being debated in Parliament pro- posed changes to the Preven- tion of Money Laundering Act, specifically dealing with the FIAU. Regulations emanating from the law will also be amended to transpose other parts of the directive. Registries to identify the ultimate beneficial owners of companies and trusts are necessary to lift the veil of corporate secrecy prevalent in financial services. Companies and wealthy in- dividuals use nominee com- panies to hide their identity. In instances like this, the names of the real owners will not crop up in public regis- tries such as the Malta Fi- nancial Services Authority's registry of companies. While the use of nominee compa- nies is not illegal and there may be perfectly legitimate reasons why people resort to them, they are often used to hide criminal activity. In the wake of the Panama Papers revelations last year which exposed the secret dealings and tax avoidance strategies of wealthy indi- viduals, and the more recent Paradise Papers, pressure has been mounting for great- er transparency in the finan- cial services industry. Muscat had told the Lon- don seminar last year his government was committed to establish a central reg- ister of company beneficial owners for companies in- corporated in Malta, and to exchange information of beneficial ownership in line with EU directives that were to come into force in 2017. The Prime Minister's dec- laration at the time came on the back of national outrage back home following news that then energy minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister's chief-of-staff Keith Schembri had set up offshore companies in Pan- ama shortly after the 2013 election. The new EU anti- money laundering directive calls for the introduction of a central register of ultimate beneficial owners, who can be persons or corporate en- tities that own over 25% of shares. The register will be acces- sible to the public when they can demonstrate a "legiti- mate interest". In case of trusts, member states must provide a cen- tral UBO register accessible to competent authorities, but not to the public. UBO- information will include the identity of settlers, trustees and beneficiaries. k s a n s o n e @ m e d i a t o d a y. com.mt 16,201 individuals apply for 62+ government Savings Bonds Total sum of €99,638,900 allocated by the Treasury MASSIMO COSTA A total of 16,201 eligible individuals applied for the government's Savings Bond scheme for those aged 62 and over. In response to a ques- tion put to him in Parlia- ment, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said that the Treasury had issued two tranches of 62+ gov- ernment bonds - one in September and the other in October 2017 - and that both had similar terms and conditions attached to them. The September issue saw 12,242 individuals apply, while 3,959 had applied for the October issue. The Treasury had allocat- ed €69,895,000 to the first tranch, and €29,743,900 to the The bonds, aimed at pen- sioners, have a five-year maturity at an interest rate of 3%, which will be pay- able twice a year. Edward Scicluna said the plan was to have four registers dealing with ultimate beneficial owners of companies, trusts, foundations and associations